


Twins vs the Unexplainable

by Quinis



Series: Twins [3]
Category: Chuck (TV), White Collar
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Mutant Powers, One Shot Collection, Responses to Prompts, Secret Identity, Shapeshifting, Supernatural Elements, Twins, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-08
Updated: 2016-01-27
Packaged: 2018-01-23 23:51:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 29
Words: 47,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1583966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quinis/pseuds/Quinis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On one hand: you have twins. On the other: you have mutations, magic, fantasy, the supernatural and sci-fi elements. Another series of one-shots revolving around the oldest con in the book with containing a mystical twist.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Author's Notes: Welcome to Twins vs the Unexplainable! This is the newest addition to what I call the 'Twins Series' which includes 'Spies vs Cons' and 'CIs vs Agents'.
> 
> This collection revolves around stories with mutations, magic, fantasy, the supernatural and sci-fi elements. If it's marked 'Incomplete' then there are prompts in the queue which will be posted here when complete. If it's marked 'Complete' it means there are currently no prompts in queue to be posted here.
> 
> Those who have been following 'CIs vs Agents' will recognise the first four chapters (which are being moved here).

 

**Life on the Other Side**

* * *

From Saj_te_Gyuhyall at AO3:

_And have you considered an X-man style fic with the twins as mutants? They have different powers, though. And maybe funnily opposite? Like Neal's power is on the more potentially violent and/or offensive side of things, while Bryce's is a passive or at least not particularly useful gift in a fight?_

**Notes:** The inspiration for Bryce's mutation comes from a manga called 'Iris Zero' where starting 25 years before the story children began to be born with a power to see something beyond the ordinary; like people growing a tail when they lie or butterflies surrounding things near their death, this power is called an 'iris'.

* * *

**Neal.**

* * *

Neal sometimes wished that, if he had to be what he was, he could at least have a mutation like Bryce's. A mutation which could came in handy when searching for a mark. But, no, he was stuck with his own. A power he never wanted.

Thankfully, being in WITSEC meant those incidents when he was young, where people ended up in hospital, were covered up. Neal's mutation, his X-gene as they later named it, was hidden for his own safety and the safety of his family.

Even when Peter caught him and he was locked up in prison, his secret was kept. He watched as the X-gene was exposed to the general public and met with fear, then worry, and some reluctant acceptance. By the time he escaped, most people figured that the X-gene and mutants were here to stay and they were met with acceptance in some places.

Even so, when Neal made his deal with Peter and the FBI, his mutation wasn't revealed.

* * *

Neal had been surprised the morning he walked into the Burke house to see El moving through the kitchen as a blur, fast and controlled. She didn't notice him for a few moments, during which seemed to make a bowl of cereal and fill it with milk from the fridge in only three seconds.

"Neal!" she gasped, dropping the milk as soon as she spotted him standing there. Neal's mouth was open and he obviously shocked; there was no doubt that he had seen her. "I'm sorry I never told you," she added, "but, it's not something that I like to share, you know?"

Neal nodded but his mouth remained ajar and he didn't really comprehend. He was stuck on the 'El is a mutant' train of thought. There were no signs, nothing odd about her until now, and she was a wonderful person. How could she be one?

He selfishly thought that he should have noticed and he wished that he had a mutation like hers, able to move quicker than normal; now that would come in handy.

"Neal," Peter sighed from the doorway, ready to launch into another 'Sunday is a Neal-free day' speech. But he noticed El's slight distress and the way Neal seemed to be frozen.

"He saw me," El informed him, pleading Peter with her eyes to do something. He knew that El had lost jobs when people found out about her X-gene and even he had been asked how he could have married 'a mutant' right in front of her. He had been there when she fought her last unfair dismissal, right before using the money she wrangled out of it to start 'Burke Premier Events'.

He nodded to his wife and she left. It would have been hard for her to stay and hear whatever, possibly hurtful thing, Neal was going to say. Not that Peter thought Neal was like that, but he had found that when it came to the X-gene, people always managed to surprise him and not in a good way.

"Neal, is this going to be a problem?" he asked.

Neal shook his head.

"Have you been tested?" Neal asked.

Peter nodded.

"All government agents are tested. I don't possess the X-gene."

Neal nodded but gave him a strange look Peter had never seen before. It was possibly a mix of interest, awe and... fear? Sadness? He noticed the Neal would give him that look a lot over the next few months, when he thought Peter's back was turned.

* * *

Neal thought that El was somewhat lucky. Sure, she had the X-gene but her mutation wasn't destructive and was actually useful.

And she had Peter.

Neal had never mentioned it to anyone but, he knew why Kate had broken up with him that day. In her coded letters to him, she said had found out about his X-gene from one of the few people who knew about it; Keller, and she had a few choice words about it. Unfortunately, Keller only knew he possessed the X-gene and not what his mutation was. She made a few good guesses, all being empathic-like abilities or something to do with his eyes, but she was wrong.

Not that Neal cared. Let them guess; their inaccuracies were better than the truth.

He did wonder if Peter would accept him and his mutation, even though his was far more dangerous than El's. It was nice to dream about.

* * *

Neal was surprised that Keller didn't expose his X-gene to the FBI for leniency when they caught him. Keller had told Kate, Wilkes and Mozzie. What Neal didn't know was that Keller had another plan up his sleeve. He let them think he was all out of moves and confessed to stealing the treasure, even while he had another plan in the works.

A plan for revenge, enacted while he was in Russian custody awaiting trial.

* * *

It was a crude but effective plan. Guns pointed in Peter's face as he pulled over to drop Neal off at June's and an order to drive as hired goons got into the car. None of them appeared to be mutants, but looks could be deceiving.

They guided them to an abandoned warehouse and ordered them out of the car. Their hands were tied with zipties and they were searched for hidden weapons. Neal's anklet had been cut and thrown out the window during the drive but now, they brought out something to replace it.

Neal shivered at the sight. He didn't need Peter to tell him what it was, he knew already.

"A suppression device?" Peter questioned.

"That's right," the leader of the group said, "we figured that you're little pet needs sometimes to replace his leash."

"Neal?" Peter glared at the group. "What's the point of putting a suppression device on him?"

"Peter," Neal said, urging him with his voice to drop it. He didn't like the smile that grew on the leader's face nor the way the other hired goons seemed to smirk at him. And that's when he realised; these weren't other mutants hired by Keller to teach him a lesson, his was a gang of haters who Keller gave his information to and let their blinded opinion of mutants being monsters do the rest.

And that was terrifying. Hired goons could be reasoned, even bargained with. But, people in it for the thrill of destroying those they didn't see as people and blinded by their own fear-born and mistaken opinions, those kinds of people couldn't be reasoned with. They wouldn't hear anything Neal had to say and anything he did say would only rile them up more.

"Of course he didn't tell you," the leader said, "he's not human. He's a mutant."

"What?" Peter gasped, looking over at Neal. "You have the X-gene?"

Neal couldn't meet his gaze. He kept his head bowed, low enough to appear cowed but high enough to allow him to monitor where everyone was. He couldn't afford to take his eyes of the leader and the gang.

Guns cocked and the sound of blunt objects hitting the ground thudded in Neal's ears. The group was getting restless. He knew that this would end in his death, just another statistic added to the group of X-gene carriers who were attacked and either injured or killed.

Peter seemed to realise it too.

"Leave him alone," he ordered, stepping behind Neal as one of the group stepped closer to Neal's back. They were surrounded, weaponless and the suppression device was dangling too close for Neal's comfort.

"We want to see what he can do," one of the group jeered as they hoisted a crowbar up like a baseball bat.

"Yeah!" some of the others agreed.

Neal swallowed.

"You don't know what you're asking," he said. There was a smack from behind and he flinched, expecting pain. Instead, Peter grunted and his warmth dropped away from Neal's back. It took him a moment to realise what had happened. "Peter!"

He got a groan in response and the sound of another whack filled the air.

Neal screamed; if they wanted to see it, well, he was going to oblige. It wasn't a 'scream', per say, more like a blast. Humans didn't hear anything, although some heard high-pitched mosquito sounds moments before the blast, but they could feel it.

Neal mutation allowed him to use his voice as a weapon, a soundwave blast which blasted through anything before him. Instead of sounds coming out of his throat and mouth, ripping shockwaves escape instead.

They threw the men back and knocked them unconscious. They blasted through the windows, walls and doors of the warehouse.

Neal turned, and in a blast which would be a whisper in his voice as any louder would be equivalent to the force of a bomb, he knocked the men away from Peter.

They would probably have broken bones or something else and Neal was going to call an ambulance once he got Peter away. Thankfully, he had enough unconscious control to hold back when facing humans, so he hadn't killed anyone with his mutation but, there were a few teenagers who had significant hearing loss and other permanent injures of varying severity because of him.

He hated it.

* * *

Peter had seen it all from the ground. Neal's blasts missed him because he was lying at the other man's feet but, he saw the effect they had on the surrounding area.

When Neal realised that, he froze.

"We need to get out of here," Peter told him, grabbing his hand. Neal automatically pulled away. He looked at the unconscious men around them. "Yes, we need to grab them too," Peter said, "this place could come down any moment."

Neal nodded and reached for the nearest man. He helped Peter drag them outside and lifted one of their phones in the process. As Peter went back in to grab the last man, Neal took his chance to crush the suppression device under his feet and took pleasure in hearing it crunch.

"That's the last of them?" Peter questioned. He was worried about Neal as he wasn't talking or responding verbally to any of his questions.

Neal nodded and held up a phone screen for Peter to see.

 _[You need to call for EMTs,]_  he had typed.

"What?" Peter responded, "Neal? What's wrong?" Neal gave him a quizzical look as he didn't understand the question. "You haven't damaged your voice or something?"

Neal's face lit up with sudden understanding and he typed another message on the phone and then showed it to Peter.

 _[If I speak, it'll create another blast. I won't have my voice back for a while.]_  He could feel the tingle in his throat the meant his mutation was still active. He pulled the phone back and added, _[there's no 'off' switch, we have to wait for it to stop on its own,]_  showing his message to Peter again when he was done.

"Oh." That explained it. Peter held his hand out for the phone and called the emergency services.

* * *

It was different to how Neal dreamed it. In his dreams, Peter kept it a secret and everything stayed the same. In reality, Peter insisted on telling Jones and Diana. They were a team and they needed to know in case there was a reason for Neal to use his mutation again.

Jones told Neal a story about a friend he knew back when he was serving. He also had the X-gene and was able to make himself invisible. He had used it once to save Jones but had been unable to save himself from the harassment and contempt he received from everyone else. Jones had been unable to help him, hadn't realised there was a problem. He ended the story by saying that he had Neal's back.

Diana started off by saying the same; she had Neal's back. She didn't probe except to ask how he had managed to keep them from finding out since there was mandatory testing for prisoners. Neal responded with a joke about how he was a 'highly classified secret' and she dropped the subject.

Peter was still Peter, which mean he insisted that Neal be the one to tell his wife because he couldn't keep a secret from her.

El was surprised, the most surprised of everyone. They joked about how they should have recognised each other, both being mutants, and had a good chat about how it affected their lives. Neal told her about Kate and she shared a story about some guy called 'Jack' during her teenage years, who not only dumped her when he found out but tried to break into her house and her father had to scare him off.

In Neal's dreams, everything remained the same. In reality, Jones kept a watchful eye on him and always asked how he was, Diana shared news about her nights out with Christie and, ironically enough, Peter seemed more trusting of him.

* * *

**Bryce.**

* * *

He was not an accountant. Being a spy, he had little use for money as whatever he needed was supplied by the CIA.

Who ever heard of being able to see how much money someone had access to? It was a ridiculous mutation that had the potential to clutter his vision with numbers when he was in a crowd.

Why couldn't he have something like Neal's? At least that would come handy when surrounded by angry gunmen or locked in a dungeon. However mutations were decided, Bryce held the belief that his and Neal's were mixed up.

* * *

Chuck had been surprised when Bryce told him. He didn't react with hate, anger or fear. He reacted with quiet thoughtfulness. He commented that he understood Bryce's reasons for not telling him and was surprised Bryce told him. There were a few tense days as Chuck thought about it but, in the end, everything returned to normal. It wasn't like Bryce's mutation was able to affect others.

Chuck was the second person; the first being Neal, to ask if he could use his ability to find money lying on the street. No, his ability didn't work like that, probably because it relied on him being able to see his target.

* * *

The CIA hired him even though his mutation wasn't really useful to them. Not when Bryce's strengths lay elsewhere. It did provide inspiration for his cover as an accountant, though.

However, with his mutation, being around spies bugged him sometimes. Even with Sarah Walker. The numbers on them were numerous and always changing but he leant to tell when the money was from the CIA for a mission. A lot of spies had other accounts, other ways to access money for a 'just in case' scenario where they couldn't rely on the CIA. Sarah Walker had several as did Daniel Shaw. So did he.

And he saw them all. It was really annoying.

It did make identifying spies easier, criminals too.

* * *

When Casey shot him, he couldn't help thinking how he wanted Neal's mutation to blast the guy onto the wall instead of seeing how much money he was making from shooting him.

He was worth more than that, for sure!

* * *

When he woke in the CIA holding cell, the first thing he noticed was the lack of numbers floating around the one or two people who came in to check his vitals. It took a while but he become conscious of the metal of a suppression device around his ankle.

He needed Chuck. But, when he appeared, Bryce couldn't tell if it was him or not. He couldn't tell if he was being paid to be here or if this was some kind of double, not without the numbers.

At least he had another way to confirm Chuck's identity. Few spies studied Klingon and even less would be able to speak it as fluently as Chuck could. His plan worked and he managed to escape and prove his innocence. Chuck helped a little.

The numbers came back when he removed that device from around his ankle. He had stared at it for a few moments before cutting it off, wondering what it would be like to just keep it. No more mutation and no more money numbers floating around, constantly changing as the person's accounts and access changed. But, it was a part of him. It was normal for him as he had been seeing these numbers since he was eleven. Although, he wasn't tested until he was twelve when Neal's mutation had revealed itself by spectacularly destroying the neighbour's house as the kid who lived there attacked an innocent bird that landed in their yard. Neal's mutation was obvious when he used it, Bryce's wasn't.

It couldn't be used to identify Fulcrum and Ring agents like how he used it to indentify spies, unfortunately. Even though they received extra pay and access to wider funds, it was mixed in with their CIA pay and, depending on the skill of the spy, could be hidden in multiple ordinary appearing spy caches.

He wondered how the Intersect might affect it but, he didn't get a chance to find out. Before he fainted from blood loss, he noticed that Chuck had begun keeping a hidden cache of funds like a real spy.

He opened his eyes an unknown amount of time later in a CIA medical ward and with Sarah's voice in his ears, calling his name.

* * *

He spent the next six months or so recovering. And, one day, he received a call from Neal. It wasn't a surprise as Bryce had been keeping tabs on his older twin. His idiotic older twin.

"What did you do?" he demanded to know as Neal had been arrested, again. This time, it was for stealing a jewel necklace.

"It wasn't me!" Neal insisted. And if he said it wasn't him, then it probably wasn't. "I've been framed."

"What?"

Neal quickly explained about the FBI agent, Fowler and how he wanted Bryce to look him over.

"Can you see if he's working for someone outside of the FBI?"

"Of course," Bryce responded, "but my, ' _you know',_ only lets me see the amounts he has access to; in his wallet, in the bank, hidden away, that sort of thing, it doesn't let me see where the money is coming from or what he spends it on."

"See Mozzie," Neal said, "he should have a record of Fowler's pay. Compare that."

Bryce smirked at the authoritative tone in his brother's voice. They both knew he would do it and there was no need for him to say so. But, Bryce couldn't resist a tease.

"So, investigating the FBI, are you finally thinking about joining me 'on the dark side'?" As Mozzie liked to say.

"No," was the flat response. "I'm not going to do anything that requires me to carry and use a gun.

"I guessed as much," Bryce said, "do you need any help proving your innocence?"

"Nah," Neal responded confidently, "Peter can help me."

Neal said it with such certainty that Bryce was stunned. He didn't need Bryce's help because he was sure the Peter, the FBI agent who arrested him, would help him.

Bryce hung up and muttered a little, "I hope you're right," into the air. In his experience, the FBI was very narrow-minded and inflexible. Since finding out about Neal's deal with the FBI, Bryce had often wondered how his flexible and intelligent brother would handle being there.

Someone with Neal's skills would be much better suited to the CIA; it was too bad he kept refusing Bryce's offers.

Bryce called the General and put in for a week off.

* * *

There were only a few discrepancies in Fowler's accounts and nothing to suggest that someone else was paying him to meddle in Neal's life.

But, there were other ways to get someone to do what you wanted without paying them...

* * *

Years later, words that Mozzie said during the investigation into Fowler; words about standing by those you trust, brought Bryce to Chuck's door. Chuck's new door. A red door attached to a white house complete with a white picket fence.

He stood there and wondered if he should knock. Did Chuck really need him back in his life?

"Excuse me," a voice said, jolting him out of his thoughts. A brown haired older lady was walking up the path. She was wearing a dark trench coat and sunglasses. She didn't just look like a spy, the way she snuck up on him and the money he could see she had access to meant that she was most certainly a spy "Do you have business with the people living here?"

He hesitated for a moment. He didn't know whether she was friend or enemy or why she was here.

"No," he responded. It wasn't his business if Chuck had attracted the attention of another spy. He started to walk back down the steps, his heart heavy.

He was there, he should at least find out what this other spy wanted. But, Chuck was a spy himself so he should be able to handle it.

"Hold it," the woman said, pressing a gun into his back. "I think you'd better tell me what you're doing here."

"Is this some kind of robbery or something?" he questioned in an annoyed tone.

"Don't play dumb with me," she said, "I've been in the business a long time and I can spot when someone's not quite right."

"'Not quite right'?" Now, was she talking about him being a mutant or about him being a spy?

"Anklet holster, just to name the obvious," she said, reaching down and flipping up his slacks and taking the gun. So, she was talking about him being a spy. "I really hope you weren't going to walk into my son's house with that on you."

Wait? "What? Son?" Chuck said that his mother had disappeared. He turned around to look at the woman. This professional spy was Chuck's mother? "Chuck?"

"That's right," she said, tucking his gun into her coat and keeping the other pointed at him. "Now, we're going to go inside, nice and orderly and you're going to tell me why you're here."

Bryce sighed and decided to go with the flow. He had been here to visit anyway. She guided him expertly back up the steps and into the house. She guided him into the lounge room, complete with a couch and an empty fireplace, and motioned for him to sit.

"Mum?" Chuck questioned as his footsteps sounded in another room.

"Here," she called back, "I found a straggler outside."

Chuck stepped into the room with a worried frown on his face. Bryce felt his eyes widen at the figure of his old friend. He had cut his hair short and styled it back and gained some more muscle and his accounts were spy-like. It looked like he was still with the CIA but there was something else.

Chuck's jaw went slack when he spotted him. It was like a punch to the gut to see the hurt and fear on Chuck's face as he tried to process his presence.

"Charles?"

"Uh, mum, this is Bryce. Bryce Larkin. Bryce, this is Mary Bartowski."

Bryce felt Mary glance curiously at him. But, his main worry was Chuck, who appeared to be swaying slightly.

"Chuck? You want to sit down?"

Chuck nodded and dropped into the reclining chair in the corner.

"If you want mummy to shoot him, I can," Mary offered, moving the gun to point at Bryce's face.

"No!" Chuck gasped in horror, "just, put the gun away."

"Besides, Casey has first dibs," Sarah commented from the doorway.

"Oh well." Mary put the gun away. "Maybe I'll give him a call."

"Please don't," Chuck said. He took a deep breath and then looked at Bryce, his gaze growing determined. "I think we need to talk first."

* * *

Bryce had answered their questions and made his proposition. Once again, Chuck was staring at him, this time in disbelief, with his jaw unhinged. It was an expression that Sarah mirrored.

Okay, it was a stupid idea. But, Chuck had told him about Carmichael Industries and how he was still operating it with the General's blessings, even though they were CIA. And they had talked about working in the same company after Stanford before he joined the CIA.

No matter how embarrassing it felt and how unnerving their stares were, Bryce wasn't going to take it back. He had come this far.

"You want to work with us?" Sarah questioned, "are you sure that's wise?"

"No," he responded, "it's not wise but, I still want to."

"It's not like we're not hiring," Chuck said to Sarah, "and Bryce would make a good addition to the Nerd Herd."

Sarah frowned. Bryce gave his most encouraging smile when she looked at him.

"Alright," she relented.

Bryce cheered internally, not showing anything more than a smile on his face, while Chuck gave a small 'yes' and pumped his fist in the air.

* * *

Within a few weeks, Bryce learnt how to use his mutation to tell how much money a shopper had to spend. He set up signals with Casey, Chuck and, later, Morgan in order to convey to them whether a shopper had more or less to spend than whatever they were showing them.


	2. RC - Rare Critters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> From Guest:  
> "There should be chapter where the twins are animals but they can be turned into human. They still have animal ears and tails through. Rare human trafficking basically. Team bartowski save both twins"

**Rare Critters**

* * *

This was the less glamorous part of being a spy, Chuck thought as he walked down the rows of cages.

"You can pick any of these," the man said, "this one is a lovely lady with orange hair and green eyes," he pointed to a hissing tabby cat. "This one is a feisty one with golden hair and blue eyes, we call her 'Princess'." Chuck thought that 'Princess' looked like an ordinary, although angry and hissing, white and fluffy cat.

He couldn't believe that these animals were supposed to be human.

"I'm looking for a man," Chuck quickly burst out, feeling his cheeks flush. He wasn't really into men, his own wife outside in the van but, they were following a lead.

Verbanski had placed them on this track, after hearing about a missing person in New York. She found a picture of the missing person and discovered he looked just like Bryce which spurred her to look into his disappearance.

It was linked to this group; who claimed to give people a 'transformation experience'. At first, they thought it was a cult but no, it was a human trafficking ring. They sold people who they called 'Critter Chunks' or 'CCs'.

Humans who weren't quite human. They could transform into animals and, even while human, possessed animal features.

Chuck still thought they were a crazy cult. But, the government had been keeping CCs secret from the rest of the world for years.

It was one big conspiracy.

"Here we are," the man said, stopping outside a door. "You're payment has been processed and we'll allow you thirty minutes with him to decide whether you want to keep him."

"Does he have dark hair and blue eyes?" Chuck asked.

The man nodded.

"If you don't like this one, there are others."

Chuck bit the inside of his cheek and nodded. The man opened the door.

The room was small and Chuck could hold his arms out and touch both sides of the wall. There was a dog lying on a mat, which weakly raised its head to look at him.

"Oh for the-" the man came in and poked it with a long electric rod.

The dog gave a sharp bark of pain and, suddenly, a dark haired kid was lying there and glaring up at them with blue eyes.

Chuck's mouth opened and shut, his mind unable to come up with what to say.

"Well?" the man asked, perhaps sensing his hesitation.

"He's a little young," Chuck commented. He thought, disappointed, that this wasn't Bryce.

The man seemed to think about this for a moment.

"I have a set you might like?" he suggested.

Internally, Chuck sighed. A set wasn't what he came for. But, Casey had warned him to agree to any suggestions and not make the guide suspicious.

"Alright."

* * *

The set were two little black cats with large blue eyes. Chuck thought that he might have been tempted to take them home, if they were real cats and this wasn't a mission.

The man poked one of them, the cat yowling and transforming.

Chuck drew in a sharp breath. Dark wavy hair, piercing blue eyes and a set jaw that was dark with stubble.

Bryce.

"You like?" the man questioned. Chuck nodded. "Remember, thirty minutes. And watch him, he and that brother of his are tricky ones." And he was gone.

Bryce looked up at Chuck; wearing dark shades and with his hair sleeked back, and growled. He moved in front of the other cat and bared his teeth.

"Bryce?" Chuck questioned, backing up towards the door. "What did they do to you?" He took of his shades and Bryce blinked, his fuzzy, large, catlike ears going flat.

"Chuck?" he questioned, his tail curling into something like a question mark.

Chuck slid to the ground; it finally sinking in. Bryce had non-human ears and a tail!

The other cat meowed and transformed, Neal appearing behind Bryce and looking at Chuck with hope in his eyes.

"Are you here to get us out?" he asked.

"Danny?" Chuck questioned. He had forgotten about Bryce's twin.

"It's Neal now," Neal said. He self-consciously tugged the dirty and damaged sweatpants he was wearing up as his tail curled around his feet.

"What- I'm confused." Despite being here to find Bryce, Chuck didn't believe in this CCs stuff. But, he was seeing it with his own eyes. "You didn't have those in Stanford."

Bryce's ears twitched and his tail drooped.

"You're not wired?" Neal asked and Chuck shook his head.

"Couldn't risk it." There were scanning devises everywhere and visitors were subjected to random checks. But, there was a tracker in his pocket that was only to be activated when he found Bryce. He had already pushed the button. Now he just had to wait.

Bryce and Neal shared looks. Then, Neal spoke again.

"There are experimental drugs that allowed us to suppress our," he hesitated on the word before speaking, "condition. But, they only work for a certain number of years."

"I had to fake my death the second time because the drug was starting to lose effectiveness," Bryce explained.

"I was lucky," Neal sighed, "a friend found a way to make the drug last longer so no one found out until these people took me. Peter probably thinks I ran."

"Peter Burke in New York?" Chuck questioned.

"Yes, wait, no. He should be in DC," Neal said.

"There's a Peter Burke in New York though," Chuck said, "he's agent, Diana Berrigan, contacted Verbanski about what I'm guessing was your disappearance. They're looking really hard for you."

"Oh no," Neal whined, placing his head in his hands and curling up into a sitting ball. "He gave up that DC job for me."

"Maybe Beckman can get it back for him," Chuck suggested.

"We need to get out of here first," Bryce pointed out, "what's the plan?"

Almost on cue, shots rang out from the other side of the door. There were yells of 'Federal agents!' and 'Freeze!'

"That's the plan," Chuck said smugly, "Beckman gave us a team, since the CIA has been after these guys for a while, and even Verbanski lent as a team."

Bryce gave an impressed whistle.

"You've really grown as a spy, Charles," he praised.

Chuck felt warm with the praise. He had never thought that he would hear Bryce say that, since he thought the other agent was dead.

"Chuck?" Sarah called, "it's all clear."

"Ready?" Chuck asked before opening the door.

"If you don't do it, I will," Neal said, baring his teeth in anticipation. Bryce nudged him in the side.

"It's not Chuck's fault you're here, be nice," he warned, his tail flicking towards his twin.

Neal's ears twitched and his tail flicked out to hit Bryce's leg.

"Opening the door now," Chuck said, hoping to halt whatever fight was growing between the two. He turned away to check outside before opening it all the way and, when he turned back, he was looking at two cats.

"Seriously?" he questioned and their mews sounded like laughter.


	3. RC2 - Rare Critters 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From Love_82 at AO3:  
>  _Neal going back to New York and Peter finding out he can change into a cat. I just have this image of cat Neal laying in Peter's lap and purring. :D_

**RC2 – Rare Critters 2**

* * *

The dark cat was ignored by most New Yorkers, which was okay with it. It bobbed and weaved through legs, following the dark man in a suit through the crowds. Its blue eyes never left its target.

Peter noticed it though, following Jones inside the FBI building like a lost duckling. He followed it and reached out, plucking it from the ground before it could follow Jones into the elevator.

It yowled and lashed out with its claws but Peter held it steady. He was used to handling cats as his parents had two as pets.

"Oh," Jones commented, finally noticing the cat, "it seems I had a little follower."

Peter gave a week smile, trying to ignore the burning in his eyes that told him that he needed more sleep.

"Hmm," he responded, unable to think of an appropriate response. Maybe something about how easy it was for a cat to break into the FBI building?

Interestingly enough, the cat stilled in his arms at the sound of his voice and its blue eyes gazed over his face like it couldn't believe what it was looking at. He found himself running a hand over its soft fur and drawing comfort from its warmth.

"Any word of Neal?" he asked, the lump in his chest thudding. It hurt to ask, to see the pity in Jones' eyes and to see him shake his head. The office was torn between believing Neal ran and believing Neal had been taken.

Peter believed that Neal had been taken, although it had took a few days to come to that conclusion. Mozzie had proven obstinate until he admitted that the reason he knew Neal hadn't run was because he was still working out their exit strategy.

"Hey Boss," Diana greeted him, looking just as tired as he felt. He wondered if that had to do with Neal's disappearance or Theo not sleeping properly. Maybe both? "You have a meeting in ten minutes, about Neal."

"What?" he questioned as this was news to him. He would barely have time to check his emails if there was an impromptu meeting.

"A Sarah Bartowski from Carmichael Industries is coming to speak to you."

Peter sighed.

"Send her up when she arrives," he said, beginning his walk to his office. The cat in his arms gave a 'mew' and rubbed up against his chest. "Thanks for the comfort, little guy," he murmured to it, "but it's not much help. I'd feel better if I knew Neal was safe." The cat looked at him sadly as he opened his office door. "Not you too," he grumbled. Even the cat pitied him.

It meowed in response and wriggled a little bit. Thankfully, Peter had reached his seat so he sat down while keeping his hand on the cat; he let it settle itself in his lap.

He typed his password and looked over his emails. Nothing important and, by important, he meant relating to Neal. As he skimmed through the emails, he stroked his hand through the cat's fur. It vibrated and purred and Peter smiled for the first time in a while.

He felt the tight knot in his chest loosen a little as he relaxed.

"You're a carefree little creature, aren't you?" he commented, scratching under the cat's chin.

It gave him a glare and then rolled in his lap, revealing its stomach. Peter gave a chuckle and rubbed its belly.

"Just like Satchmo," he commented, even though Satch wouldn't fit in his lap, "are you sure you're not part dog?"

The cat gave him an offended look and then returned to enjoying its belly scratch.

* * *

Peter was not playing with the cat. No, the cat was the one who jumped up on his desk and started playing with one of his pens. Peter was trying to get the pen back when the cat bat a paw at it. He decided to see what would happen if he held the pen higher; it was an experiment and not a game. The cat reared back and continued batting at the pen.

"There you are!" a hard voice proclaimed.

The cat yowled in surprise and dropped off the table.

"Uh, can I help you?" Peter questioned after jumping out of his chair and making sure the cat was okay.

"Sarah Bartowski," she said, her short blond hair bouncing around her head. She glared at the cat on the floor. "I've been looking for you, you know."

To Peter's bewilderment, the cat stuck a tongue out at her. He knew that it was smart but, it seemed more human than any other cat he had ever met.

"Agent Burke, what do you know about Critter Chunks or 'CCs'?" Sarah asked, closing the door behind her and taking a seat.

The cat hissed at her feet before dashing around and jumping into Peter's lap.

"Nothing?" Peter responded in confusion. The woman handed him a file and he opened it.

"Humans that possess animal features?" he asked her in disbelief. The report also said that they could also transform into their animal.

"That's right," she said, "the government is currently keeping their secret in order to protect them."

Peter closed the file and pushed it back to her.

"What does this have to do with my White Collar division?" he asked. He preferred not to know about things like this. It meant fewer secrets to keep from his wife and it wasn't like his job involved any of these CCs.

"Neal Caffrey," Sarah said, those two words catching Peter's attention, "he worked with your division. He's also a CC."

"What?" Neal fit the description of human and he certainly didn't possess animal features.

"He was using a drug to keep his condition a secret," Sarah explained, "but, somehow, a group of CC traffickers found him. They were keeping him captive until someone offered to buy him."

"What?" Peter roared, his hands clenching. If anything happened to Neal... he left the threat hanging in his head.

The cat yowled again as it fell to the ground when Peter stood.

"He's okay!" Sarah was quick to reassure him, "we managed to rescue him and his brother."

"Brother?" This was all very confusing.

"You can ask him about that," Sarah assured him. She pushed the file towards him. "This contains everything about Neal's kidnapping, including the public story. He was kidnapped by a human trafficker and rescued by us. And he knows the laws concerning CCs."

"Laws?"

Sarah gave him a knowing look, although he didn't understand why, and left. She only had one last tip before she left; to close the blinds so that no one could see.

* * *

Peter followed her instructions, feeling foolish. What was this supposed to do?

"I don't like her," Neal's voice suddenly rang out. Peter turned around in a panic.

"Neal?" The conman appeared to be there, sitting next to his desk and wearing only a pair of sweatpants. His hair was a mess and there was dark stubble across his chin but, Peter didn't care.

He pulled Neal into a tight hug and hoped he wasn't seeing things. Neal felt solid enough. He froze in Peter's grip for a moment before relaxing into the hug.

"Are you okay?" Peter asked when they pulled apart.

"Mostly," Neal responded, his ears twitching. "They had prods and they hurt but, other than that, just a little hungry. Oh, and I need a shower, I smell of cat."

Peter stared at him a moment more. Neal had two big and fuzzy cat ears where his human ears had been and, flicking around behind him, was a tail.

Okay. Peter decided to ignore all that. Neal was back and that was what was important.

"Why don't you like her?" he asked.

"She used to date my brother," Neal responded with a shrug. "That's reason enough."

The words, overprotective sibling, rang through Peter's head.

"Alright, let's get you cleaned up and then announce the good news."

Neal hesitated for a moment.

"I can't go outside like this," he said, a hand reaching up to tug at an ear. "I need to cover my head and hide my tail."

Peter gave him a look that said, 'can't you work out a solution?'. A moment later, there was a pop and Neal was gone, replaced by the black cat from before. It walked over to the door and looked at him.

"Seriously?" Peter thought, actually amused by the thought of walking through the office with a cat following him. "You could have explained yourself first," he grumbled good-naturedly.

Neal just mewed, as if to tell him to hurry up.


	4. PP - Part of the Pack

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From Saj_te_Gyuhyall:  
>  _"You've successfully managed anime style kitty boys (kudos to you!) how about werewolves? Not the type that are uncontrollable beasts, so nothing like in HP, BtVS, and SPN though. I'm a fan of the Teen Wolf style myself, and Patricia briggs's world is awesome too... Or if you're not familiar with any of the more in control verses, make up your own mythos! :D The boys are born what they are, or turned at the same time? Both have exceedingly good control and only chance or choice outs them! (In Patricia Briggs's books werewolves choose to all come out of the supernatural closet because science is starting to realize the exist, as an example!)"_

**Part of the Pack**

* * *

There were things that ordinary people had no understanding of. Neal took a lot of pride in being one of those things.

Most days. But, most days didn't involve a full moon, alcohol and a visit from his twin brother.

Full moons made him twitchy and energetic; eager to move, to run, to jump, to shift.

Alcohol made him willing to take risks.

Visits from his twin brother made him enjoy shifting as he had someone to share it with.

The combination was a deadly one. Bryce placed the wine glasses away and gave him that wild smile, the one he got when he pulled off some kind of really difficult mission.

And then he shifted. One moment a man, the next a wolf. He stretched and snuffed at the air.

He looked and Neal and Neal found himself smiling. It had been a while and Mozzie was out of town so, Neal reached inside him and twinged the wild part of him. A flashing feeling similar to a shiver ran over his body before it changed. The world widened as the floor rushed closer, his senses dialled into the change and the colours faded from his vision at the same time he was assaulted with an assortment of scents and sounds, his muscles bulged with strength and his tongue lolled out of his jaw.

He gave a soft whine as the twitchy feeling dissipated with his change. He lay out on the cold floor and started to close his eyes.

The sharp, musky sent of his brother came closer and the other wolf gave a playful growl.

He softly barked back before curling up into a ball. He could feel the light of moon on his body and there was no need to move.

His brother nudged at him and he curled up tighter. The other wolf would do well to take a hint and go to sleep as well.

No such luck. A playful growl, a scrape of claws against the floor and two warm paws impacting into his body.

He growled back as they tussled on the ground; fun but also good practice.

* * *

Peter couldn't sleep. The latest case was a real annoyance. It involved lots of numbers and checking through accounts.

He would bet that the suspects kept multiple accounts everywhere just to create more for him and his team. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw monetary values floating before him.

El had kicked him out of bed and he decided to pay Neal a visit. It was late, but still the current day so, he didn't doubt that Neal was still up and engaged in nightly criminal associations.

In other words, he was probably hanging out with Mozzie and having a drink or five.

He was let in by one of the night maids and showed himself up to Neal's apartment. As he walked up the stairs, he could hear scratching and growls but figured that it was a TV or something.

Or the house settling. Did the creaks and groans of older houses really sound like whines and growls? He realised, feeling like a fool, that it could be Bugsy having a really realistic dream. Satchmo sometimes growled in his sleep too.

He amused himself with these thoughts as he climbed up to Neal's apartment. However, once he opened the door, his thought froze. Except for one; get out!

Good advice, if his legs were working and however many pounds of large black dog came tackling into him. The weight sent him smacking into the floor as sharp claws dug into his shoulder.

Hot, stinking breaths were huffed into his face as the wolf, as it was too large to be a dog, growled low in its stomach. Peter's eyes widened at the multitude of tearing teeth in his vision and closed his eyes as steaming saliva dripped onto his chin and neck.

He tried to shove the wolf off him, but it was too heavy. Absently, he wondered why a wolf was in Neal's apartment as he tried to pull strength into his arms.

Suddenly a quick and forceful growl sounded from further in Neal's apartment. Peter cursed as he realised that there was another one. It's padded feet clicked along the floor as it came towards them.

"Neal!" Peter called, wondering what happened to his friend. He hoped that he wasn't here and that he was somewhere safe but, he despaired that Neal might have been the first victim.

The second wolf growled again and the first wolf turned its head away from Peter to bark back. Another growl and the first wolf climbed off Peter, stalking away to the opposite side of the apartment.

The second wolf came forward, its head hanging a little as it paused before him. Peter pulled himself into a sitting position and examined it. It didn't seem interested in attacking him and had called the other wolf off; he immediately realised how impossible that seemed.

The wolf carefully came closer, watching him as much as he watched it. Peter watched, breathless, as he wondered what it was up to. Finally, it nudged its head against his hand.

A lot like Satchmo when he wanted a pat. Peter's hand automatically reacted and he stroked the coarse hair of the wolf.

It made a rumbling sound of contentment and lay down beside him as he ran his hair through its coat. He found himself growing less tense.

"He really does trust you," a male voice said, jarring compared to the wolf's content rumbles. Peter was certain the other wolf was standing where this man was now.

"Neal?" he questioned because the hard expression on the younger man's face was foreign to him.

He shook his head.

"Bryce," he corrected, pointing to himself. "That's Neal." He pointed to the wolf, baffling Peter.

"Uh, what?"

"Come on, this is your friend, you should tell him," Bryce said. It seemed like he was talking to the wolf and not Peter but it wasn't like the wolf could reply.

The wolf gave a huff and moved a step away from Peter. In a blink, there was no wolf. In its place was a shirtless Neal, lying along the ground and looking petulant.

Peter jolted back and his first coherent thought was the he was going crazy. Neal put his hands up in a 'no weapons' position.

"Peter, let me explain," he said.

"Oh no, there's no reasonable explanation for this. Unless you drugged me, did you drug me?" his voice grew impossibly high on that last word.

"I did not drug you," Neal said. Peter glanced over at Bryce and Neal responded before he could ask, "no, he didn't drug you either."

"Then, what is going on?" he demanded to know, standing up on shaky feet.

"Uh," Neal seemed lost for words and, any other night, Peter would have enjoyed the sight.

On the other side of the room Bryce sighed in frustration.

"We're werewolves," he said, "and, Neal, I know you don't like talking about it but, you better take the time to explain it right." And with that said, he shifted back into wolf form and stalked over to the bed.

"Should he be doing that?" Peter questioned as the wolf that was Bryce jumped onto the couch to doze off. Here he was, confronted with real proof of the existence of werewolves and all he could worry about was whether the wolves were allowed on the furniture.

"June has a good cleaner," Neal said. Peter glanced down at him and noticed that he seemed just as shocked as he was. At the very least, he was certain that the paleness of Neal's pallor had nothing to do with the moonlight.

"You hungry?" he questioned as he went to the fridge. Last time he had been here, he had left a few beers in there.

Neal shook his head.

"I wouldn't be able to keep anything down if I ate," he said as he nervously tapped his foot on the floor.

Peter grabbed his beer and then moved to sit at the table, keeping the wolf on the couch in sight. He couldn't go home as he didn't think he'd be able to sleep after this, so he might as well hear Neal's explanation.

* * *

"We were born this way," Neal explained, his hands moving to illustrate his words as he spun his tale. "You see, being a werewolf is something in the blood, it's hereditary. Our mother was one and our father wasn't. Ma had been warned about marrying outside the wolf lines but, she didn't listen and she married a cop. And then she had us, me and Bryce. She's never said as much but, we both know that she wished we took after our father more and were just ordinary humans.

"All the things the other werewolves told her about marrying outside the wolf lines, they came true. Our father left and she had nothing but two young werewolf children and a life she to rebuild from scratch. She rebuilt her life but, there was really no place for me and Bryce in it, even when she remarried; this time to a 'nice werewolf man'. Bryce left for college and I just left. I spent a lot of time in wolf form while travelling, it made roaming easier. When I was hungry, I could just hunt down something like, say, a rabbit and eat that. Oh, don't make that face, Peter, surely you've been hunting once or twice. It's like that but, without having to cook it.

"Anyway, I don't belong to a pack. June's son-in-law has been kind enough to extend the protection of his pack to me so I don't have any problems while staying here but I'm not a member of his pack, more like a client. Bryce belongs to a powerful pack, you might have heard of them; the CIA?" He smirked at the last bit as Peter's jaw dropped. Peter asked the obvious question and he answered, "no. The CIA isn't made up of werewolves. There are some but most are all human. However, you might be surprised to know that a lot of wolves end up in some kind of government work. Bryce has asked; they consider it as returning a debt since the government has been keeping werewolves a secret for generations.

"Yep, that's right. The government has been keeping the existence of werewolves a secret. And not just the US government, any government in any country where wolves make their homes, keep their existence a secret. Don't know why but, it has something to do with some kind of deal made centuries ago.

"So, that's basically it. Bryce and I are werewolves, we can take the form of a wolf whenever we like." Pause as Peter asked another question. "Oh, the full moon thing? Well, it fills us with energy and makes us twitchy. Less well trained wolves can also feel really itchy. And it doesn't stop unless you transform. What? No! I did not use my 'werewolf powers' to pull off any of my alleged heists! We don't even have 'werewolf powers', beyond the shifting thing."

* * *

What Neal didn't tell Peter was that ordinary humans were counted as pack if they met certain conditions. The first was that they cared for the werewolf, as a good friend or family, and the werewolf cared back. The second was that they knew they were a werewolf.

Peter met the first condition long ago, when they first started working together, maybe even earlier. It was why Neal's wolf didn't let Bryce's wolf tear him to pieces.

That night, Peter met the second condition and unknowingly became part of Neal's pack. They would later share this with Elizabeth and she would also become part of Neal's pack.

* * *

Neal and Bryce were brothers and blood related wolves. They weren't pack but something different. Bryce could protect Neal without it being interpreted as betraying the pack and Neal could seek Bryce without interference from his pack.

* * *

Bryce had a large pack, in name only. Most didn't pass the first condition. Some did. Chuck was first. Then Bryce grew closer to Orion as he grew distant from Chuck; ironically, they bonded over having to cut themselves off from Chuck because of the CIA. Later, surprising him, he connected with Sarah and she became part of his pack.

* * *

Orion and Sarah both knew he was werewolf because it was in his file. Chuck, however, found out on moonlit night.

* * *

Unlike Neal, who took to hiding his wolf from the world by not transforming, Bryce took to hiding it by transforming away from people.

He was rarely spotted and 'the wolf stalking Stanford' became an urban legend which no one really believed so they weren't really interested in wolf sightings. Chuck, however, set out one night on a dare to prove that the wolf existed. No one expected him to find the wolf, especially Bryce, who was going out that night. It was just a dare that meant Chuck would be cold and tired the next day and everyone would laugh afterwards.

Chuck set up camp at one of the tables and benches which were placed around the grounds. He had his books, his pens and a camping lamp he borrowed from Bryce to use for light. The night air was cold but, not to bothersome.

Until that night, Chuck hadn't believed in the Stanford wolf. But, partway through the night, when the moon was still rising, he heard a scuffling of leaves and spotted a pair of glowing eyes watching him. It gave him a heart attack and he froze on the spot as a very curious wolf walked out from the bushes and over to him. It snuffed at him and then curled up at his feet, under the table. Chuck didn't unfreeze for seven minutes; that's how long it took him realise that the wolf didn't mean him any harm.

He had thought he was done with surprises but then, the wolf shifted into a very nervous Bryce as the sun broke over the horizon.

* * *

This experience was one of the reasons why Chuck wasn't scared years and years later, after the Intersect and marrying Sarah, when a wolf appeared inside his house. He was surprised and wondered how the wolf got there but, he wasn't scared. Sarah had a gun pointed at it in moments, following Mary Bartowski's lead.

"Chuck, get away from it," Mary ordered in a calm voice.

"What?" Chuck questioned in confusion. He did the exact opposite, holding out his hand and petting the creature. He made sure to get close so that they couldn't shoot it.

"Chuck, that's probably a werewolf," Sarah explained.

"What?" Chuck questioned, surprised that Sarah knew about werewolves. Sarah incorrectly interpreted it as ignorance and disbelief.

"Werewolves exist," She explained, Mary nodding from her stance beside her.

"The CIA has been assisting in the hiding and protecting of werewolves," she explained to her son.

Chuck made an 'oh' face as he process this. He hadn't known about the CIA. But, he didn't get a chance to comment has his hand slid over something wet and sticky.

Blood.

"You're injured!" he gasped to the wolf, ignoring the guns pointed at him as he dropped down so that he was level with the creature's face. "What happened?"

"Chuck!" Mary warned and he shot her an angry look. He wasn't going to stand by while this creature needed help.

The wolf gave a whine that morphed into a groan as it shifted from wolf to injured man. Bryce winced as Chuck's hand pressed hard against his injured side.

"Some guy tried to stab me," he explained as calmly as he could. But, when he wasn't talking he was panting and his forehead was beaded with sweat. "His knife glanced my hip and I need a place to lie low for a while."

"I think it did more than 'glance'," Chuck commented, glancing back at his mother and wife. They had more experience with injuries on the job than he did.

"Chuck, you know this wolf?" Mary questioned as Chuck motioned her over. Bryce let out a high whine as she pressed her hand against his injury.

"We went to Stanford together," Chuck explained, "that's where I found out he was a werewolf." Once it was clear that Bryce didn't mean him any harm and he received answers to most of his questions, Chuck found it cool.

"Doesn't that mean that you knew before I did?" Sarah questioned Chuck in confusion, "you never mentioned it."

"Bryce made it clear that it was a secret," Chuck responded with a shrug.

"I might be able to stitch this up," Mary commented, "I'm going to need a first aid kit and a needle and thread."

Chuck went pale. He didn't need anyone to tell him what the needle and thread were for.

"You're going to stitch him up?" he said in surprise, his voice rising a little in horror. "Here? As in, without a hospital? Or without painkillers?"

"That's right," Mary responded, finding her son's antics overkill. Chuck and Bryce shared a look, one seeking permission and the other giving assurance.

"Get me a couple of panadol tablets?" Bryce commented with a confident smile, which was a shadowed with pain.

"I'll get you the whole box," Chuck responded, eager for any reason to leave. Thankfully, Bryce understood his reluctance to hang around and was okay with it.

* * *

After he was stitched up, Bryce fell asleep in human form and ended up shifting halfway through the night. While werewolves don't have fast healing, treated injuries sometimes vanish. The work Mary did on his wound, cleaning it up and stitching it up, allowed it to heal as he shifted. The skin was able to fuse and close the wound, leaving only a small scar.

By morning, Bryce was as good as new. Except his wolf form got tangled up in the sheets and couldn't get out. He growled and struggled and tried to tear the sheets with his claws and jaw but, he only managed to get even more tangled and even drop off the bed and onto the ground.

He yelped and twisted some more. It seemed to work, because the sheets began to move away. Bryce gripped the carpet with his claws as he tried to get his bearings. A sharp scent of something musky was behind him and something flowery from the direction where all the air flowed from, the exit.

They were both familiar, although aged scents, of pack. His long time friend placed a hand before his muzzle and then gave him a few strokes across his head and a welcome scratch behind his ear.

* * *

Neal was curled up on the Burke's couch, nursing a really bad stomach ache. Dogs didn't like chocolate and, apparently, you shouldn't feed wolves it either. It was all El's fault. She made lovely chocolate mousse for dessert and Neal had eaten all of it and then she wanted to see him in wolf form. It was like that time when he ate the raw fish while hunting as wolf and didn't give his stomach time to settle before shifting back to human form.

This time, he had done two quick shifts and his chocolate filled belly, instead of killing him or something, decided to make life unbearable instead.

He wasn't even aware of Peter until the other man's hand was pressed to his ear and making scratching motions. Tingles of good, happy feelings rushed through his body, easing the pain.

"Mmm." He forgot he was human for a moment; his mouth lolling open and his leg twitching as his happily arched up into the touch.

"-just like Satchmo," was all he caught but it was enough to send a wave of shame and anger through him and pull away.

"Aw, Neal. He didn't mean anything by it," El was quick to reassure him. A little too quick. He gave her a suspicious glance that told her he wasn't buying it.

Then, his face scrunched up as his stomach cramped painfully.

"Neal?" Peter questioned in a worried tone. Once it was over, Neal glared up at him. "Come on, you know you liked it. Consider it repayment for almost letting my wife poison you."

Despite the slight insult pointed towards her, El giggled. Three grown adults, two who owned a dog and another who was part-dog-family, and none of them thought that offering Neal chocolate before shifting would hurt him.

And Neal wasn't in any position to argue as another wave of pain rushed through his body.

"Fine," he whined. At least it made him feel better.


	5. CatCS - Cat Crime Solvers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From KMW1968:
> 
>  
> 
> _"I have read a couple of "NCIS" stories in which Tony turns into a handsome cat (brown fur and green eyes in his case), and he is able to go undercover as a cat and wear a wire and/or a camera hidden in his collar. That would be a great idea for either cat-Bryce or cat-Neal. Think of the possibilities for surveillance work. What bad guy would suspect that Puss is conducting surveillance on him? ___
> 
> _  
> _  
> _"... I also kind of like the idea of Chuck, Sarah and/or Casey being rescued by cat-Bryce."_  
> _  
> _

**Cat Crime Solvers**

* * *

**Neal**

* * *

Peter thought it was the most ridiculous story he had ever heard. The idea that Neal was such a great thief that he stole the form of a cat from a witch was obviously fabricated as a way for Neal to brag about his skills.

Except he had told Neal to prove it moments after the story, forgetting the way Neal tended to rise up to challenges. Neal had smirked and stood up. To this day, Peter didn't know whether the twirl was for dramatic effect or part of whatever illusion it was but, Neal twisted around and his body seemed to compress in an instant.

And Peter found himself standing before a self-satisfied looking black cat. It licked it's paw and then started grooming its head in an adorable manner.

"I don't know how you're doing this, but it's obviously some kind of trick or something," Peter grumbled as his wife cooed over the 'adorable kitty'.

The cat curled into a ball and sprang up, growing larger in an instant; another motion which Peter didn't know whether it was for dramatic effect or not.

And Peter was once again standing before a smirking Neal Caffrey.

* * *

Thankfully, whatever it was that allowed Neal to turn into a cat also changed the anklet into a collar since, now that Peter knew, Neal spent lots of time around him as a cat. It was good for afternoons watching the game with a warm and purring critter on his lap but it wasn't so good for when Neal wanted to skip out on a scolding.

It was really difficult to scold a cat. For one thing, Peter kept having too look down at him. For another, it made Peter feel like a crazy person.

"Neal," Peter hissed in an angry tone, "this is a terrible idea!" Neal huffed and turned away, wiggling his tail in Peter's face before curling up to sleep. Peter groaned in frustration.

"What's going on?" El asked walking in a moment later. She had heard Peter talking from the entrance and guessed that Neal was in cat-form again.

"We can't get eyes on Barelli's newest operation so Neal wants to go in."

"Well, what's the problem with that?" El asked.

"He wants to go in as a cat and have us hook up a camera to his collar." Peter saw that El didn't understand so he added, "it's dangerous and the FBI doesn't have that kind of equipment!"

"Oh."

"But, did that stop him? No! Now he just wants us to wire him while he's a cat! There's no telling what Barelli will think!"

"Well, you said that he likes dogs, maybe he likes cats as well?" El suggested in a reasonable tone. Neal yowled in agreement.

"There's no guarantee!" Peter said. El smiled.

"I guess you'll have to watch over him," she suggested.

"I'd rather feed him to Satchmo," Peter grumbled in defeat. To cheer him up, Neal jumped and climbed up to rest on his shoulder.

* * *

**Bryce**

* * *

It had been a while since he had used this power. But, Chuck and Sarah were in danger and he and Casey were trapped in a cell with metal bars keeping them from helping.

"Last time I'll ask, where are the plans?" the woman known as Mistress Rowena asked. She was the one people hired to 'acquire' things that they wanted, be it information or objects, and she took great pleasure in forcing people to give their things up.

Casey tried using brute strength on the bar to no avail. He cursed and yelled insulting things at Rowena and at Chuck, for getting caught. However, Rowena paid him no mind. She turned on the electrical device she was going to use to torture Chuck.

There was no way Bryce was going to let this happen. He spun and compressed, using the power he shared with his twin, granting himself the form of a black cat. He squeezed his way through the bars, ignoring Casey's exclamation at his transformation.

He felt compressed like a spring, coiled with energy and ready to spring. And spring he did; across the floor and up onto Chuck's lap before jumping onto Rowena's chest and clambering up to her head. He made sure his claws dragged across her body and face and his tail swept across her body.

She screamed.

"Blasted cat! Where did you come from?" She stumbled around, trying to shake him off.

Bryce jumped from her body and to the ground, transforming back before she realised and clocking her across the jaw.

"Bryce?" Sarah questioned in surprise. He turned to her and smiled before turning to Chuck and cutting his hands and legs free.

"Nice one," Chuck said, as if turning into a cat was the most normal thing in the world. Bryce laughed in response as Chuck moved to free Sarah.

"Still trapped over here," Casey called out in a growl from behind the bars.


	6. RC3 – Two Fills

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From KeJae on Fanfiction.net:  
>  _"Just had a thought...what if Neal figured out a method to hide his CC nature in front of the team, but what if Peter was kidnapped and Neal turned cat to rescue/give him company? After all what average kidnapper would be concerned if a random black cat had a tendency to wander into an abandoned building and curl up with their prisoner?"_
> 
> From Brycelarkin32 on AO3:  
>  _"Now that you have neal. Maybe lets see what kind of hell bryce can cook up for casey. But in the end he get a good belly scratching"_

**RC3 – Two Fills**

* * *

**Neal**

* * *

Neal's watch beeped, loud and piercing. It rang through the conference room and drew every eye to him.

Neal was sluggish as he went to switch it off, he tried to hide it but Jones noticed.

"Go home, Neal," he said in an authoritative tone.

"No," Neal responded, rubbing his face to wake himself up.

"We can do this without you," Jones pointed out. Neal gave him a look that asked, 'really?' because they had been working on this all day and now late until the night with no success.

"Neal, we need you rested up for when we have a plan ready to go," Diana pointed out in a kind tone. She knew how hard Neal had been working, trying to find a way through Thad Rojas' defences. The man had kidnapped Peter and locked him up somewhere in his house, which was more like a fortress. Until they could confirm where Peter was and find a way in which wouldn't put him at risk, they wouldn't be allowed to move.

Neal gave in to Diana's gentle prodding. Or so it appeared. The watch alarm was there to inform him to take another shot.

Neal was one of five hundred CCs taking part in a new trial to test a drug which suppressed their inhuman features. So far, it had worked without any side-effects. The only downside was that he needed to inject himself with it every twelve hours and while the drug was in his system, he couldn't turn into his animal form.

His animal form. Neal paused and dropped the syringe back into it's container. There was a way he could get to Peter without Thad's interference. Better yet, he would be able to protect Peter if need be.

Neal dropped the container back into it's place in his desk, grabbed his hat and left.

The drug wore off partway there. The moment he felt he could, he transformed into the black cat form he had possessed since birth.

* * *

Peter tugged and the chains and sighed. Neal would have been able to get out in an instant but him, the law abiding FBI agent, was stuck. Chained to a chair in a stone wall, iron bars keeping him in even if he managed to unlock the chains, Peter thought Thad Rojas was taking the 'evil villain' thing a little too far.

"Mew!"

Peter froze. Was that a cat crying?

"Meow?" Again. He squinted and leaned forward as much as he could, not that it changed what he could see.

However, he didn't have to wait long before a black cat with bright blue eyes walked into view.

"Me!" It cried out happily, bouncing through the bars and over to Peter.

Now that he thought about it, this cat look familiar...

"Neal?"

And then Neal was standing before him, looking like the cat that got the cream. And he was back to having fuzzy cat-ears instead of human ones, something Peter found unnerving.

"Peter!" he cheered quietly, "you're okay?"

"Neal?" he questioned again, afraid that this was an illusion. Of course, his head wasn't that creative even if he had seen Neal turn into a cat before. "I'm fine but, what are you doing here?"

"Jones and Diana are trying to find a way in," Neal said and he pointed at his tracker; the light was blinking red. "They should be here soon."

Peter sighed. He needed to have a talk with Jones and Diana about making sure Neal didn't do stupid things.

"What happened to your shots?" he questioned, eyeing Neal's tail as it swished through the air.

"Please don't call them that," Neal grumbled, "and I may have 'forgotten' to take my last one." He jumped as there was a bang and Peter was staring at a cat once again.

"What the?" Thad growled as he stared at Peter and the cat. "How'd that get in here?"

"Don't ask me," Peter responded in an unhelpful manner. Thad snorted, taunted him about how the FBI knew he had him but were unable to do anything about it and then stalked off.

"Did he seriously just come down here to gloat?" Neal questioned, transforming back. He crinkled his nose. "That's so tacky."

"Well, you can tell him that after we arrest him," Peter pointed out. He sounded grumpy but, inside, he was amused.

* * *

**Bryce**

* * *

Casey was going to shoot whoever thought of this idea. Or maybe he could blame Morgan, who left him with Bryce the cat in order to deal with a 'customer emergency'.

" _'Let's test a Critter Chunk's ability by monitoring one while transformed'_ ," he grumbled to himself as he cocked his gun. He then pointed it at the cat sitting on his laptop's keyboard. "Get off, Larkin."

Bryce opened on sleepy blue eye, looked at him and then yawned before going back to sleep. Casey huffed and holstered his gun. It looked like he wasn't going to get any reports typed up today.

He decided to spend some time in the training room since he had been neglecting his hand-to-hand combat lately anyway. He did a few movements before something made a noise behind him. He stepped on something thin and fuzzy and warm, which yowled and caused him to jump.

It was Bryce. Once Casey's heartbeat slowed from 'rapid' to 'fast', he gave the cat his most displeased glare. It didn't seem to faze him at all.

"Stupid cat," Casey grumbled, getting out his phone to call Chuck. As if to show him that he was not stupid, Bryce climbed up the frames they displayed and stored their weapons on and then jumped on Casey's shoulder. "GAH! He's on me! Chuck!"

On the other end of the phone, Chuck laughed.

"Sounds like he likes you," he said and then hung up. Casey growled and thought wistfully of the days when Chuck feared him.

"Bad cat!" Casey bellowed, grabbing the creature around the middle. Bryce yowled and wiggled and flayed wildly. Casey dropped him on the ground, carefully, by kneeling so that they were both close to the ground. It took a few moments for Bryce to realise that he was safe, after which he batted his head into Casey's hand. Casey made an inquiring grunt.

Bryce batted his head into Casey's hand again. Then dragged his body across it.

Casey sighed. Obviously, the stupid cat wanted to be petted. So, he ran his hand along the warm creature, hoping this would be enough to calm it down.

Bryce purred, a rumbling sound which vibrated through his tiny body. He dropped to the ground and let Casey scratch at his belly.

"When you change back, we're never speaking of this again," Casey grumbled.


	7. CHDPY - Child's Play

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From ocgirl:  
>  _"Also, not sure if you are into it, but I was thinking two de-aged Caffrey/Larkin would be hilarious. A bit less for Peter/Diana or Chuck/Sarah though." ___

**CHDPY - Child's Play**

* * *

Two little faces stared up at him in awe, tiny mouths forming an 'o'. Their messy dark hair waved across their foreheads in a mischievous manner and their blue eyes almost seemed to sparkle.

"How did this happen?" Peter asked, turning to Chuck. The CIA agent shrugged, eye never leaving the small humans at their feet.

"Hey, mister!" one of them, Peter had no idea whether it was Neal or Bryce, called out as he tugged at Peter's trousers. "Have you ever shot someone?"

Peter shot a silent plea for help at Diana and then Chuck. Diana just turned away to hid her giggles while Chuck moved forward and knelt before the boys.

"Okay, names," he said, pointing at one of them.

"I'm Danny!" he said, flinging his arms up like it was a declaration. "What's your name?"

"Chuck," Chuck responded. He turned to the other one, who was still attached to Peter. "And let me guess... your name is Bryce?"

Bryce let go of Peter and turned to Chuck in awe.

"Wow! How'd you know that?" he asked, toddling over to place his hand on Chuck's knee.

"Magic," Chuck responded, "would you like to see a trick?"

Both of the young boys smiled and nodded, crying out that they would. Chuck reached out and pulled a quarter from behind Bryce's ear. They both stared at him in amazement and reached for the coin.

"It's mine!" Bryce said, turning on Neal the moment their hands touched.

"Nah-uh, fasted one gets it!"

"He pull it from my ears!" Bryce was quick to point out. Chuck froze like a deer in headlights.

Diana was quick to leave now that it looked like a fight was going to break out. Sarah watched wistfully as she left.

"Stop it, Neal," Peter ordered, stepping towards the boys. Neal froze and turned to stare at him.

"How'd you know that name?" he questioned, the coin forgotten. "No ones supposed to use it no mores. I'm Danny now."

"I'm Bryce!" Bryce added, happily.

Peter froze, again. In truth, he had only intervened because he couldn't stand by and watch a fight break out, even if it was between two kids. Now that the fight had calmed down, he had no idea what to do.

Jones came in that moment and lifted a squealing Neal up.

"Let's just take ours and leave the spooks with theirs," he suggested.

"There's a problem with that," Sarah pointed out as Neal started wailing and crying and Bryce began kicking Jones in the legs.

"Let him go! Let him go!" he chanted.

"Okay, okay," Jones said, moving to place Neal on the ground. Peter spotted the way Neal's legs wriggled and his gut feeling flared up.

"Wait!" he tried to warn Jones but was too late. The moment Neal was safely on the ground, he bolted with Bryce following behind him.

* * *

Bryce and Neal ran. They had no idea how they came to be with these strangers or where their mother or Aunt Ellen were. But, when the stern adult picked Neal up, they realised that they might be in real danger. Even though the other two adults were nice. The magician adult was interesting while the quiet adult was kind.

"Box!" Bryce pointed out. There was a box sitting in the hall they had run into. They shared a look and Neal nodded. Bryce curled up on the floor and Neal upturned the box over them.

There. They were hidden and no one would find them.

* * *

Peter and Chuck lost sight of the boys around one of the corners.

"Someone find them!" Peter ordered and the agents, except Diana and Jones, scattered. "Tell me how this happened?" he asked them.

"How Neal and Bryce got away or how they ended up as four year olds?" Jones asked for clarification which annoyed Peter.

"Just tell me," Peter groaned, running his hands through his hair. The FBI office was not a safe place for children, he knew this. But it wasn't supposed to be, because children weren't supposed to be here unsupervised.

"Well, remember that drug they were injected with during the last case?" Jones went on without waiting for an answer, "it appears that may be the cause. It's an experimental drug which was designed to rapidly regenerate cells. It's taken almost a day to show an effect."

"I told Neal to go to a hospital and get checked out," Peter grumbled. If they had caught this early, he believed they might have been able to stop Neal from becoming a mini-Neal.

"Bright side, it's probably temporary," Diana said, "the research notes state that the chemicals leave the subject's body after 72 hours."

"That doesn't really explain why they don't remember being adults," Chuck pointed out.

"Maybe their young brains can't process their adult memories?" Jones suggested.

"This really doesn't help find them," Peter pointed out, storming down the hall. He paused when he spotted a box lying on the ground inside one of the rooms. "Block the door," he told Chuck, moving inside.

Chuck curiously glanced in and spotted the way the box seemed to shudder with movement. Peter crept towards the box and Chuck smirked at the image it presented; it looked like a father playing with his sons.

"Ah-hah!" Peter cried as he lifted the box and revealed the squealing twins. Bryce bolted for the door, which Chuck blocked, and Peter grabbed Neal's arm and held him still. "No more running," he told the little kid.

"Let me go!" Neal wailed back.

"No," Peter responded reasonably, "Neal, do you know where you are?"

"Don't call me that!" Neal whined.

"I want mummy!" Bryce cried, tears pooling in his eyes and Chuck picked him up and bounced him to calm him down.

"This is the White Collar office for the FBI," Peter explained. Neal perked up at the word 'FBI'. "Children aren't to run around in here. Now, we're going to take you and your brother to the conference room and give you some paper and pens to colour with. You're not to leave the room, do you understand me? There are people working."

Neal nodded and Bryce nodded.

"Do you catch bad men?" Neal questioned, suddenly happy. The way their emotions seemed to bounce all over the place was enough to make Peter tired. "My daddy catch bad men, that's what mummy told me." Neal talked all the way to the conference room.

* * *

Peter was resting his head on his desk when Jones walked in, carrying a blue coloured Neal in his arms.

"What happened?" he sighed, taking Neal from his agent. He ignored the way Neal was rubbing his blue stained hands all over his shirt and made a mental note to get the older version to pay for the dry cleaning.

"Caught him chewing on a pen," Jones explained, "it looks like it exploded in his mouth."

Peter cursed and tried to remember if the pens around the office were non-toxic. Was he supposed to take Neal to the hospital?

Neal giggled and blew bubbles which were stained blue from the ink in and around his mouth.

"I think Analise in accounting carries wet wipes," Jones said, "I'll ask if we can borrow them."

"Get the box!" Peter called after him.

* * *

"I think he's kind of cute like this," Morgan said as Chuck presented the young Bryce to him.

"Can you babysit?" Chuck said in a begging tone.

"Sure, buddy," Morgan responded, eager to please.

"Thank you!" Chuck said, taking a break so that he could eat lunch. It would be nice to do something without someone toddling up behind him and asking 'why?'.

Morgan stared at the young Bryce and wondered why everyone was avoiding this room. The poor kid was sitting on the floor in the corner with a thick marker in hand and scrawling over a page. He looked like a picture of loneliness.

"Are you the guy Agent Carmichael called in?" Peter asked as he walked through the door with another child in his arms.

"That's right, Michael Carmichael, at your service!" Morgan said, eyeing the badge clipped to Peter's belt.

"Good. Take him," Peter ordered passing the child to him. Morgan bulked under his weight. Who knew that four year olds could be so heavy? "Don't let him out of your sight."

Neal smiled up at Morgan and repeated the swear word Peter said earlier.

"Uh..." Morgan questioned, dumbfounded. Peter just blushed and exited the room quickly. Morgan watched him go and then turned back to the child in his arms. "You know you're not supposed to say things like that, right?"

"I want Bryce," Neal said, completely ignoring what Morgan just told him. He wriggled so Morgan would put him down and then walked over to his brother, who had moved from scribbling on the page to scribbling onto the wall.

"Oh, no!" Morgan cried, rushing over to pull the children away from the wall.

* * *

Mozzie was standing at the entrance to the White Collar office. This was serious business and required his presence.

"Mozzie?" Diana questioned, "what are you doing here?"

"The Suit called," Mozzie said, "something about a young Neal and the guys from yesterday?"

"Yeah," Diana confirmed, "Neal and one of the agents from the other office were turned into four year olds. We've got them in the conference room where one of the agents is watching them."

Mozzie was appalled.

"You're letting some stranger-suit look after Neal? Are you insane?" Someone had to fix this so, he walked up towards the baby prison that the agents called a conference room and stormed in with the Suit behind him. Yeah, he stopped to yell at Peter for letting some stranger-suit babysit Neal when Neal had him.

"...And then Carmichael, seeing that the bomb was about to go off, uses his computer fixing skills acquired at Buy More Base, and loads the computer-killer website. The computer-killer website destroys the bomb and Carmichael saves the day!" Morgan cheered, finishing the story about what happened when Chuck first acquired the Intersect. Neal and Bryce cheered and clapped from where they were seated on the floor in front of Morgan while Morgan noticed Mozzie and Peter standing at the door. "Next time, I'll tell you about how Carmichael's brother, Michael Carmichael, uncovered a plot to destroy Buy More Base and found out about Carmichael secret job saving the world."

Peter gave Mozzie a worried glance, afraid that he would start ranting about something.

"You shouldn't tell children stories like that!" Mozzie said, true to Peter's prediction, "you should tell them about things like how the moon landing was faked and teach them to look beyond the teachings of 'the Man', not about fake 'heroes' who 'save the world'."

"Hey, my story totally happened," Morgan said and then paused as he realised, "wait, I wasn't supposed to say that."

"Ah-hah! A government cover up!" Mozzie countered and then also realised something, "were you telling them about the true events surrounding a government cover up?"

Morgan looked confused for a moment and then just decided to go with it.

"I guess."

"I approve," Mozzie decreed. Peter glanced between them as he wondered what had just happened. He hadn't followed any of that.

* * *

"What happened to the wall?" Peter questioned, glaring at the two boys. They pointed to each other and then to Morgan.

"Hey, it wasn't my fault," Morgan said, "baby Bryce was doing that when I came in."

"Not a baby!" Bryce countered with an angry stamp of his foot.

"Okay!" Peter said, ready to end this day. "I think it's nap time." Thankfully, he had sent Jones and Diana out to find some blankets and pillows and they came back successfully.

* * *

Neal's mouth dropped open. Beside him, Bryce had a similar surprised expression.

"That did not happen," Neal said, shaking his head. Bryce turned to Chuck, hoping he would back them up.

"Sorry man," Chuck said, rubbing his tired eyes. "It happened."

"I have pictures!" Morgan pointed out in a helpful manner as he pulled out his phone. "Baby Bryce was so adorable and they make great blackmail."

"'Baby Bryce'?" Neal questioned with a smirk.

"Not a baby!" Bryce quickly countered, his face flush with embarrassment.


	8. RC4 – Mozzie's story

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From KMW1968:  
>  _Something I would be interested in reading about in the "Rare Critters" series would be Mozzie's reaction. Does he already know Neal's secret, or does he find out in the course of one of the stories? How does he react?_

**RC4 – Mozzie's story**

* * *

There were stories, rumours, the 'I know a guy who knows a guy who's a CC' but Mozzie never really bought into it. The idea that someone could be born with such a condition and not made that way through some kind of evil government experiment was crazy.

He never really thought Neal would be the kind of person to buy into that nonsense. But the way Neal seemed to radiate tension and the offhand comments he made whenever someone brought the subject up seemed to suggest that he was a lot more interested than he let on. And Mozzie tested; he brought the subject up with Neal a few times.

"Mozzie, I'm a CC," Neal admitted one day when he refused to get out of bed. He had been off the past few days but Mozzie put it down to fighting off some kind of brainwashing bug after being around a Fed.

"You're a what?" Mozzie questioned, wondering if he had heard right. Neal curled up under the covers. His head was stuffed under his pillow and the hands gripping it were almost white from tension.

"I'm a CC. A Critter Chunk," Neal said, "and I think the drugs I use to suppress my condition are losing effectiveness."

"What does that mean?"

"We'll have to cancel the long con on Adler." At Mozzie's indignant cry, he explained, "I can't go in after this, they'd notice the change."

"What change?" Mozzie insisted; there was no way they could stop right now, he had invested too much time and money so they could do this.

"The ears… and tail," Neal didn't sound happy about it, "I'll have to take measures to hide them and they'll notice the change in my attitude."

Mozzie didn't know whether or not to believe him however, he would help Neal out so they could finish their con and then do some more research into CCs. If Neal needed to feel like he wasn't about to turn into an animal; human-animal? Mozzie wasn't sure of the specifics, then Mozzie would do whatever was needed to make Neal feel better.

It took him a while to track down the chemist who owed him a favour.

"A CC, Mozzie? Thar's something I didn't see you gettin' involved with," the chemist said. Contrary to the roughness of his accent, he was a thin and pale person who spent most of his time indoors and traded drugs for information and favours.

"Please don't humour me," Mozzie said, "if he believes he needs this, then I'll get it for him, we're in the middle of a big job."

The chemist shook his head.

"Mozzie, the CCs are real. They say it's a result of experiments conducted during the wars to create people with animalistic abilities. What they got was a bunch of shapeshifters with animalistic features, useless for fighting."

Mozzie made an interested noise. That certainly explained it. The government was always looking to hide the past behind rumour and smokescreen. He wondered if Neal himself knew the dark place his curse had come from.

"Well, I need something to stop the features," he demanded. The chemist handed him a drug which would help and told him to come back in a month for more.

Within a day, the long con on Adler was back in business.

* * *

Mozzie had spent ages searching for Neal. No one seemed to know anything and those that did weren't talking. He managed to get the story out of one guy, in a bunch of hypotheticals and misdirections. Neal had been taken by one group only to be stolen by another.

Mozzie started to lose heart when the rat said that he would have a better chance talking to the guys behind bars. It meant that the first group was probably arrested. It took Mozzie half an hour to realise he had people in law enforcement who could assist him.

The Suit did lose Neal, it would only be right for him to help find him.

* * *

Mozzie walked into Neal's apartment without knocking. Neal, sitting at the table, hissed in surprise. Two black, fuzzy things on Neal's head pricked up and a something dark around his legs flicked out.

"Moz!" Neal cried in surprise, his hands flinching up to cover his ears. The tail curled protectively around his body.

"You look like a crazy person," Mozzie said. It was good to see that Neal was alive and all but, "how are you supposed to con people, looking like that?"

"Charm?" Neal questioned with a twitch of a smile.

"And why did the Suit have to tell me that you were back and safe? And why did I have to call said Suit in order to get the information that you were safe and sound?"

Neal didn't have a response for that. Instead, he sighed and pulled out his hat and placed it on his head so that it covered his ears. He then tucked the tail into his pants where it was hidden.

"Better?" he asked and Mozzie found himself nodding. "There are rules that state I must hide my ears and tail in public at all times."

"Rules of the establishment created in order to keep your existence hidden," Mozzie mumbled in protest, although he was grateful that Neal hid them. Maybe he would get used to them in time but, right now, Neal's animal features were too much.


	9. ASNG - A Strange Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From Anon on AO3:  
>  _If you have time, could you do an AU of this werewolf thing, were Neal reveals himself as a werewolf when Peter is undercover for a case? Peter gets into trouble, there is fight, and this wolf comes out of nowhere and saves him._
> 
> Notes: Probably not what Anon was looking for...

**A Strange Night**

* * *

Peter didn't like these odds. Four gunmen and Central Park at night were a bad combination. They were just jumpy enough that announcing he was a federal agent would probably get him shot.

"Look, think this over," he said, trying to talk them down.

"Hand over your wallet!" the leader of the group ordered. Peter bit back a sigh and did as they asked; slowly, carefully and making sure they could see his hands at every step.

At least the wallet only contained the details for his alias; Jim Green. The moment they used any of the information in it, the FBI would be on their doorstep.

Peter bent over and placed the wallet on the ground. Then he raised his hands and stepped away from it. One of the gunmen moved forward and picked up the wallet. He searched it but didn't seem to find whatever he was looking for. The fifteen dollars Peter had been carrying were passed to the leader who pocketed the money and then levelled his gun at Peter's chest.

"You think we're fools?" he questioned in an offended tone. His finger twitched on the trigger. He didn't say anything more as there was a howl and a snarl.

A dark shape bounced out from the trees and clamped onto the leader's arm. The leader howled as the shape dropped off him and moved to the next gunman and the next and the next until they were either rolling across the ground in pain and fear or bolted off into the darkness.

The dark figure, which Peter now realised was a wolf, paused in the middle of the chaos and turned its bright grey eyes to him. It slowly padded its way towards him and Peter swallowed and stilled.

"Peter!" Jones called a moment later. The wolf paused at his voice and then glanced away, its body tensing up. Peter didn't like that at all.

"Shush," he crooned, kneeling. He held out his arms, trying to show that he wasn't a threat. He had spent vacation time around his grandpappy's farm when younger and realised that this wolf wasn't much bigger than his grandpappy's working dogs.

It seemed almost frightened of him with its head low and its tail weakly wagging. Peter made a 'come hither' motion and it started walking towards him. It was in his arms a moment before Jones came bursting onto the scene.

"Peter!" Jones said in relief. Then he noticed the two gunmen bleeding on the ground. "Get some EMTs here!"

"What are you doing out of the van?" Peter questioned in an order, "what if Walton saw you?"

"Walton's probably out cementing his alibi right now," Jones muttered in a disgusted tone, "Diana caught a blip on a few of his aliases' accounts. Took us a while to figure out that he was paying for a hit."

"Walton hired those men?" Peter questioned, suddenly very glad that the wolf appeared. If it hadn't, he would have been in a lot of trouble. He rubbed the wolf's belly.

"Yeah," Jones responded slowly, "so, what's with the dog?"

"Wolf," Peter corrected, "it attacked those men."

"Ah." Jones took a few steps away. Peter snorted. Now that he was petting it, the wolf seemed calm. It was probably someone's illegal pet or something.

"I'll take him home," Peter explained, "Satch can handle the company for one night and I'll find out where he came from tomorrow."

Jones sighed as he and Diana would probably do the heavy lifting trying to figure out who was missing a wolf. He was not impressed with any fool who would have a wolf for a pet.

* * *

The wolf was a calm creature from the moment he walked into the Burke house. El was a little worried about the large creature but, he managed to wiggle his way into her heart with what Peter liked to call sympathy glances. Satchmo even liked him. They were curled up together when Mozzie came bursting through the back door.

"Suit! It's an emergency!" he said, "a travesty, a danger!" Peter sighed as he explained, "I've lost my, uh, dog!"

"Your dog?" Peter questioned. He knew that Mozzie didn't have a dog.

"Suit! That isn't important!" Peter stared at him. "Okay! So, he's not really a dog." Now Peter hadn't expected that but, something told him he should have.

"More like a wolf?" he questioned, pointing to where the wolf and Satchmo were curled up.

Mozzie looked at the wolf and then collapsed into the armchair with a long-suffering groan.

"Of course he ran to the Suit's house! And here was I, searching Central Park," he cursed. The wolf glanced up at him and snorted.

"Well, he saved my life," Peter pointed out, reasonably.

"Right!" Mozzie stood up. "I'm taking him home."

"Unfortunately, I can't just hand him over to you," Peter said, moving to stand between the wolf and Mozzie.

"Feds," Mozzie snorted. He thought about his next move before saying, "you might want to watch him. He'll surprise you in the morning."

Peter gave the short man a confused look as he left.

"What do you think he meant by that?" El asked, giving the wolf a curious glance.

* * *

Morning came and Peter sat with his coffee and paper in the wee hours of the morning as he watched the wolf. Nothing had happened during the night but, El had been so interested in Mozzie's parting words that she woke up before sunrise in order to see what would happen. And Peter wasn't going to leave her alone in a room with a wolf, not matter how friendly the wolf seemed.

The sun rose and the wolf seemed to flinch. Peter's coffee cup shattered and coffee splattered across the ground.

"Hi Peter," Neal said, flashing a smile which appeared sharper than usual. "Can I borrow some clothes?"

"Werewolf?" El questioned with an interested smile once Neal went upstairs to raid his clothes stored in the spare room.

"No way." And when Neal came back down, thankfully dressed, Peter added, "this never happened."

Still, he spent most of the day researching werewolves. And knowing he could probably threaten Neal with a silver spoon the next time he did something stupid was a nice thought.


	10. WHSA - What Happens in the Safe House

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From KeJae on Fanfiction.net:  
>  _I read this through a couple of times... I am more accustomed to the idea of werewolves so I found a lot amusing:) My mind kept wandering and playing with the idea of Peter having a case go wrong leaving him lost in the woods so Neal goes wolf to get him back to safety, or EL is taken and ends up in the woods but Neal disappears and goes wolf to track her down and walk her back safely. (I kept thinking it through with them knowing, not knowing, and perhaps something like that being how the teams discovers?) ___

**What Happens in the Safe House**

* * *

Her last check in had been hours ago. She should have arrived by now. That was going through Peter's head over and over again as he paced the planked floor of the cottage safe house.

"I should be out there!" he exclaimed, banging his hand on the counter. He had been threatened, him! Not her. But, the FBI and Mozzie had all thought it best to put him and El in a safe house away from the city until it was safe.

"Do you want me to go search?" Neal questioned, his blue eyes almost glowing in the twilight. Peter felt a shiver go down his spine. It wasn't often Neal felt dangerous but Peter knew about the secrets the conman was hiding.

Neal Caffrey was a disguise, a ruse and a trick. Neal's real name was unpronounceable with a human mouth and tongue. As he had jokingly said to Peter once, "Satchmo would pronounce it better than you." Which was true. The sounds required a snout, a lolling tongue and an instinctive knowledge of canine communication.

Neal was really a werewolf, an unlucky one whose mother had gone into labour on the night of the full moon and given birth in wolf form to wolf pups.

Of the three pups, only two survived. Which was two more than expected. The first shift was always the hardest and shifting hours after birth was enough to kill even a healthy child.

Their mother was kicked out of her pack when it was discovered that her children were a little bit different. Neal wasn't colour-blind like the rest of the werewolves and Bryce was immune to the regular werewolf weaknesses, like silver, which made him almost indestructible.

Peter hesitated to send Neal out into danger.

"Five more minutes," he promised. Neal itched to run, he could see that. This time, it wasn't itching to run away but to run to someone.

With the slow ticking of the clock, time passed slowly. They waiting, perking up at the the slightest crunch of gravel from outside.

Still, waiting.

"It's been five minutes," Neal finally announced with a wild glint to his eye.

"Go," Peter ordered.

Neal moved, shifting into the form of a large black wolf. His blue eyes scanned Peter as he attached the tracker collar to his neck.

Finally, he ran.

* * *

Elizabeth stumbled through the forest. Her breathing harsh. Her eyes stinging. Her body wanting rest. Her thoughts screaming at her to keep going or else.

Or else. Her eyes pricked at the thought of the marshal assigned to guard her. It had only taken one shot through the chest to kill him.

One shot to end a life. It had almost been her life.

Why? Why was this happening? The driver was a thug, hired to kill her.

"This'll show Burke," he laughed as he aimed the gun. He hadn't expected her to yank at it and ram his head into the headrest of the car. He hadn't expected her to bolt out the door either with the marshal behind her. The driver managed to get out and fire the shot which ended the marshal's life.

Elizabeth kept running. She felt horrible but she needed to stay alive. For Peter.

She stumbled. Sticks and leaves stingingly poked into her hands. They scraped her face and her dress.

Someone took a step nearby.

She clenched her hands, stood up and kept going. There was a howl in the distance and her heart plummeted. She hadn't know there were wolves in this area.

"Where's the safe house?" she asked herself, almost begging her unconscious mind to remember. She saw nothing but trees and plants and leaves. Biting back tears, she continued moving.

And then she heard a low scream of pain. It howled out over the area, along with an animalistic snarl.

Again and the again the scream echoed. It was haunting and made her shiver in fear. She dropped to the ground again, her legs refusing to move. She didn't want to die but she couldn't find the strength to stand.

She froze as padding feet sounded nearby. A crazy thought went through her head as she wondered when it had grown so dark.

Her breath caught as a sleek, black wolf seemed to appear out of the darkness. Its blue eyes were like ice as it came closer. Flakes of something dark decorated its muzzle; she really hoped it wasn't blood.

She winced as it sniffed her and, a moment later, a hand rested softly on her leg.

"You're okay," Neal's soft voice crooned and her eyes snapped open to meet his blue ones.

"What?" she questioned, "how?"

Neal snickered and she frowned.

"It's not funny!" she scolded, "where were you? Where's Peter?"

"Peter's at the safe house, where you should be," Neal said seriously as he recalled the reason he was out here. "Now, I need you to trust me and follow the wolf."

"What?" Neal didn't respond as, before her eyes, he changed into the black wolf. It nudged her up to her feet and supported her as they walked towards the safe house.

* * *

"A werewolf?" Elizabeth questioned, wondering if her husband had been working too hard.

"Oh, I know that look," Neal commented, "that's the 'I don't believe this look'." When Peter just glared at him, he added, "trust me, I know. I've seen it many times."

"Many times?" Elizabeth asked. Neal just shrugged.

"I've told a few people. Mozzie had the same expression. He believes in government conspiracies but not supernatural ones."

"And Peter?" Elizabeth looked at the man in question who shifted nervously.

"You don't need to know that," Peter said, embarrassed.

Elizabeth nodded and then looked to Neal. There was certainly a story there.

"Oh, one of the criminals we caught was also a werewolf. He shifted during interrogation and tried to kill Peter. I shifted and saved him."

"And we spent weeks wading through paperwork for the cover-up which followed," Peter sighed.

"Was that during all those late-nights when you and Neal ate in the office?"

"No, that was the time he cancelled on the lunch."

"Neal!"

"What? They wouldn't let you leave until you finished reading and filling out forms and you had to cancel."

Peter groaned and placed his head in his hands, right as his phone rang.

"Hello?" Elizabeth and Neal watched on as he listened to the person on the other end. "Yeah, yeah." Peter cast a suspicious look at Neal. "Really? That's good. I'm sure they'll enjoy this."

"What?" Elizabeth and Neal asked in unison.

"They found the man who attacked. He was bleeding and volunteered information about the person after us in return for a hospital."

"Really?" Neal questioned, "I thought you couldn't do that; withhold medical support to those who need it?"

"We can't. But, no one told him that. He's currently telling us everything we need to know to take this guy down." Peter paused and then looked at Neal. "Any idea how he ended up injured?"

Neal shrugged and they all knew he wouldn't respond with an affirmative or negative.

"So, we only need to stay the night," Peter continued. This news was met with two happy sighs.

Elizabeth didn't like putting her work on hold to hide in government safe houses.

Neal didn't like being cooped up inside.


	11. CatCS - More cat ones

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Just a reminder, you are free to write your own continuations of these stories – just place a disclaimer stating that you have borrowed an idea from one of these stories and send me a link because I would like to read it.
> 
> From KMW1968:  
>  _What I had in mind when I gave you the prompt was a story in which Neal (or Bryce) actually did go undercover as a cat._
> 
> _…but what about Diana, Jones and Hughes? Perhaps they don't know, but they could find out in the sequel when Neal goes undercover._ (Didn't do this last part...)
> 
> Prompt: _The team could be giving their report to Beckman, who wants a demonstration and explanation of Bryce's ability. She would be very surprised, but I think she would recognise that it is an ability which could come in very useful. One of the team (Casey maybe) could make a crack about how they have said before that Bryce has more lives than a cat. Chuck would be petting cat-Bryce and saying that he rather likes him this way. Sarah, once she gets over being miffed about Bryce not telling her about his ability, would also be happy about petting cat-Bryce. Perhaps she could joke that she likes him better as a cat._

 

**More cat ones**

* * *

He was the newbie, the newest member of Victor Bachman's crew, and that meant he got the boring jobs. It was his job to stand around inside the entrance, armed with a gun and watch who entered. If he let a cop or mark through, it meant the end of his career and possibly his life. He liked to believe that he would be able to get out of New York before Victor killed him. Maybe even before Victor realised he messed up. He had been the guy to catch the last undercover cop sent their way.

He jumped to attention as the door blew open. He held the gun ready to shoot inside his jacket as he walked over to the entrance.

No one was there. He decided that it must have been the wind when something brushed against his leg.

It was a black cat.

"Hello?" he questioned, bending down to give it a rub behind the ears. He hadn't missed the brilliant blue of the creature's eyes. "You're a pretty one. Better keep away from Stan though, he's allergic."

The mewed as if agreeing with him and then moved away. He watched it go, not really willing to stop it. Cats went where they wanted and were harmless creatures, as long as they stayed away from Stan.

* * *

"…also, Stan; a.k.a. 'Stan the man-breaker', is allergic to cats," Neal added to the end of Peter's report on Bachman's operations. Hughes was impressed but sceptical.

"First Barelli and now Bachman, that's impressive. However, you haven't told me how you acquired this information."

"I thought CIs didn't have to justify their information," Neal said, sore that whatever praise came his way was always overshadowed by questions.

"CIs don't, agents do," Hughes pointed out, looking at Peter.

"You really wouldn't believe me, sir," Peter responded, "can we leave it at 'a little cat told me'?"

* * *

 

* * *

 

"Well, he does have more lives than a cat," Casey smirked.

Bryce was standing in the centre of the floor, right before Beckman. And he was not happy. He didn't even crack a twitch of a smile at Casey's joke. Or even the fact that Casey was capable of telling a joke.

Beckman wasn't amused either.

"Should I be assigning psychological evaluations for you all?" she asked without a hint of cheer. They shuffled nervously, unconsciously responding to the threat. "The idea that Agent Larkin can turn into a cat is something which belongs in fantasy books, not the CIA. Grow up."

Bryce was about to breathe a sigh of relief as it looked like she wasn't going to look into it, when he caught a look at Chuck's face. Chuck had been against reporting this as it had little to do with the case and because he respected people's privacy. Sarah and Casey believed that the General had a right to know.

Bryce wished they would all just drop it already.

He didn't like talking about this. About what happened to him and his brother, who he most certainly will not be telling them about.

Neal liked to call the woman, 'the witch' and he just liked to forget.

"Okay, she thinks we're crazy," Chuck stage-whispered to Bryce.

"Emotional blackmail," Bryce grumbled back. But it was Chuck and he knew that Beckman now needed an explanation for how they escaped.

Bryce sighed and did a little twirl, compressing himself into his cat form. Everything grew bigger, louder, and different in a way which always made him feel wrong. Beckman took in his appearance and then signed off, saying she would get back to them.

* * *

Chuck reminded Beckman to keep this a secret and then noticed the way Bryce's body seemed to tense at their voices.

"Are you upset?" he questioned, reaching down and placing a hand on the cat's head. Unfortunately, Bryce startled and bolted, racing up the computers and coming to rest at the top of the screens. There he balanced, laying low with hackles raised and a scared shiver running through him.

"Uh, opps?" Chuck said as Sarah and Casey glared at him.

"Great. Now we have to get him down," Sarah complained as Casey grumbled a few insults towards 'Larkin'.

"Uh, here kitty?" Chuck tried, holding out his hands. Bryce shot him a distasteful look. "Please? Come on Bryce, the screens aren't made for sleeping!"

Bryce made a huffing noise which sounded like a laugh.

"Something we can agree on," Sarah said, moving forward with a chair. She climbed on it and held out her hands. Then she bent forward, trying to grab him.

At first, he moved out of reach. Then he seemed to reconsider and moved closer. Finally, he climbed over her arms and came down.

"'Bout time," Casey grumbled, "now change back."

Bryce stared at him for a moment with large blue eyes, tilted his head and mewed.

"That sounded like a 'no' to me," Chuck laughed, picking up the cat. Bryce wriggled for a bit but settled after a few moments when it became clear that Chuck wasn't going to let him run away again.

* * *

It took a little bit of nagging but Chuck finally managed to convince Sarah to pet the cat. At first she found it strange, especially since she knew the cat was Bryce but, she settled in quickly. The cat was soft and warm and soothing, vibrating as she rubbed her hand through his fur.

Beckman called back while she was rubbing Bryce between the ears.

"Agents," she greeted. Sarah's hand jolted away from the cat and Bryce flinched and jumped up on all fours in surprise.

"General," Casey greeted for the team.

"Still a cat, Larkin?" Beckman questioned. It wasn't a question but an order to change back.

The cat seemed to deflate before giving a twirl. Moments later, Bryce Larkin was sitting on the table with messy dark hair and ruffled clothes.

"General," he greeted with the flash of a smile.

"Liked him better as a cat," Casey grumbled, "talked less."

"I must admit, there is merit in this situation and I am interested in whether your... ability is connected to how you keep surviving situations where ordinary agents would be marked as 'deceased'."

The group shared a confused look. But she wasn't finished.

"Agent Larkin, I want you to stay with Team Bartowski for now."

"I thought the level of exposure I would receive staying in one place would put everyone in danger?" Bryce questioned. He was supposed to be 'dead' after all.

Beckman paused and he knew he wasn't going to like this.

"Bartowski is adopting a cat," with that said, she hung up and the screen went dark.

Bryce's face fell.

"We sell litter-boxes upstairs," Casey pointed out.

"Casey, no! He can change back for that. And, uh, for meals too," Chuck pointed out awkwardly while a smile twitched on Casey's lips.

Bryce glanced at Sarah, who hadn't said anything yet.

"I like this idea," she said bluntly.

"Really?" Chuck and Casey questioned; one in surprise and the other in amusement.

She nodded.

Bryce liked this idea a bit. It allowed him to be in Burbank and watch over Chuck and the Intersect as well as keeping him where anyone who wanted him dead couldn't find him. But, he would have to live as a cat most of the time, using the ability he had been cursed with.

That evening, Ellie cooed over the new pet Chuck brought home.


	12. OO - Only Once

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fromsteampunkunicorn on AO3:  
>  _Okay, you've done werewolves and cats, but I was wondering if you could have them be selkies. They are one of my favorite myths and it would be interesting to know why they are on land. Perhaps the CIA possesses Bryce's and Neal had become a con man to try to get it back? Just a possibility._
> 
> Notes: This is a long one and kind of all over the place... enjoy.

**Only Once**

* * *

The ocean sung. There were times when Neal could hear it, loud and clear in his thoughts. It hummed like a lullaby, like a song heard in childhood.

 _"Maybe it's time to grow up, Neal,"_  Bryce had said to him once. The words had been hard. They were the words of someone who had lost and couldn't see how to make things right again.

As his madre used to say;  _'a selkie only gets their skin stolen once.'_  Mozzie would have liked her.

She had her skin stolen once. She hunted the thief down, took back her skin and killed him. Because of that, some of Neal's oldest memories were of staying in motels while his mother was out looking for clues.

Because they travelled with their mother on land as children, Bryce and Neal were more attached to the land-dwellers and their culture than most selkies.

Neal and Bryce returned to land years later, making new homes and identities for themselves. They didn't realise the importance of last names and how they showed who you were related to so they spent a lot of time explaining why they had different surnames. Their go to excuse became 'we were separated at birth and didn't find each other until recently'. Really, they had picked whatever last name had suited them; Neal liked the sound of 'Caffrey' while Bryce liked the simplicity of 'Larkin'.

They grew up with land-dwellers and immersed themselves in the land-dwellers culture. They weren't the first selkies to do so and whenever they returned to the sea it was always the same tune; they would return permanently eventually, once they experienced the greed of land-dwellers.

_'A selkie only gets their skin stolen once.'_

Bryce had his skin stolen during his time at Stanford. Unknown to him, a group of his housemates had ransacked his room as a joke and found his hidden skin. They had crinkled their noses at the seal skin and wondered why he would keep something so dirty and disgusting. One of them, a rich guy who was there on his parent's dime, suggested selling it.

It was sadly ironic. If Bryce hadn't gotten Chuck kicked out, Chuck would certainly have stopped them. But, Chuck was gone so they sold the skin.

Bryce discovered what had happened too late. He tore into his housemates but there was nothing they could do to stop it. Bryce grabbed his things and left, making sure that the money from the sale went into his account and not theirs.

He stayed with Neal in the apartment they acquired.

"It's not over. We can find it!" Neal insisted.

"Maybe it's time to grow up, Neal." They hadn't been to the ocean in weeks. Bryce muttered that they were selkies in name only, he more than Neal now that he lost his skin.

* * *

Bryce threw himself into pretending to be human. Neal could see that he was missing something. Without his skin, he was harder and colder than he used to be. He treated everyone with suspicion.

The father of the guy who sold the skin was a banker. Neal wasn't one for revenge but he wanted them to hurt the way his brother was hurting. He moved to New York; told Bryce that he was looking to experience life in the big city, and forged the bonds which he could use to get closer to the guy.

He found Mozzie instead and a new path was opened up to him. Maybe, he could steal it back? It was possible as the path of a conman was one that would teach him how to steal without hurting anyone.

The seal in him certainly liked the idea of taking the shiny things. As much as it loved living it a city on the waterfront.

And Neal met Kate. He forgot for a while that he wasn't human.

_'A selkie only gets their skin stolen once.'_

Neal kept his skin close to him and hidden in a bag. A bag Kate took when she ran from him. He wondered for years whether she took it with the knowledge of what it was and that it would cause him to chase her forever like the man who took his mother's skin or whether she was ignorant like those who took Bryce's skin.

He never did get his answer. He found her but he couldn't ask with the FBI right outside and Kate refused to tell him at first.

Neal spent four years in prison. Surrounded by grey walks he spent most of his time aching for the sea, for the ocean and for his kind. At times, he would dream of the dark ocean depths, of seal calls, fuzzy whiskers and instinct telling you what was right and wrong and then he would wake up in a cold cell with the cries and whimpers of angry and broken land-dwellers and wonder if this was to be his life. He would feel the overwhelming sense of loss, of a hole in his chest where his seal-self should be and he would have to resist the urge to break down.

He would have been better off at an aquarium, trapped as a seal instead of here, trapped in a form which itched on rainy days.

Kate vanished and Neal made his deal with the FBI. Working with the FBI, he realised something. It wasn't how the land-dwellers' sense of right and wrong worked, like he knew Peter was hoping he would learn.

Instead he realised that there were no Peters in the ocean. No accepting Els or conspiracy Mozzies. There were no kindly and crooked Junes.

The ocean sung and the land hummed in tune. Cars drove past June's with hums and bleeps as people moved across floors with shuffles and thuds. The office bustled with rustles, clicks, scribbles, rings and thumps of feet;

"Sleeping on the job, Caffrey?" Diana questioned. Neal opened one eye and let the hums and the song buzz in the back of his brain.

"Come on, Diana," he smirked, "wouldn't you?" He pointed to the mortgage fraud files Peter had him looking over. He was supposed to be examining the signature to see whether it had been forged.

"Hmm," she pretended to think about it for a moment. "Nope. Not when a warehouse of stolen art has been discovered."

Wait. Neal sat up straight.

"What?" Has she said what he thought she said? Was she joking to get a rise out of him?

She smirked in a 'have I got your attention, now?' kind of way.

"Peter's up there talking with the agents who discovered it," she explained, "they found it while hunting down some terrorists."

"And they probably don't want Neal Caffrey anywhere near that stolen art," Jones pointed out. He was sitting at his desk and typing away, the only one of them actually working during this gossip-fest.

"That's their loss then," Neal shrugged.

"I'd say it's their gain," Diana countered, "they don't have to put up with your childish antics."

"'Childish'?" Neal questioned, raising an eyebrow. He saw the laugh Blake suppressed.

"Well, Childish or not, seems like they want to take their chances," Peter said, causing a few agents to jump. They hadn't noticed him walk down. He added, "everyone, these are agents Carmichael, Walker and Casey. We'll be working together until we can get this mess sorted out." And Peter would take all the help he could get when terrorists were possibly involved.

Neal frowned and tried to figure out why Carmichael looked familiar. He didn't get much of a chance before the man in question walked up to his desk and asked him;

"So, who are you?"

Neal blinked. That was not a question he was used to.

"Neal Caffrey."

Carmichael's dark eyes narrowed, as if examining him for something. Whatever it was, he didn't seem to find it as he straightened up a moment later.

"I'm Chuck," he said, holding out a letter. Confusion raced through the room.

Chuck, Chuck, Chuck; where did Neal know that name from?

"Oh! Chuck out of luck!" Neal realised out loud a moment later, causing more confusion and some embarrassment on his part.

Casey grunted, as if reminding Neal to watch the insults.

Chuck flinched but sighed a moment later.

"Please tell me Bryce doesn't call me that."

"No, just me," Neal responded, opening the letter. It was from Bryce.

"Wait, he's not Bryce?" he heard Walker whisper to Chuck.

"No, he's Neal," Chuck whispered back, "Bryce's twin."

The letter said that Bryce was in New York and that his seal-skin had been found.

Neal stared at it for a moment. 'His seal-skin'? That wasn't possible. For Bryce to be able to find either of their seal-skins... Neal shivered. Why did he think of fleeing to the cold depths of the ocean?

"Neal?" Peter questioned in concern. Neal gave him a smile and then turned to Chuck.

"You're missing an agent, aren't you? I happen to know where he is."

* * *

It was a dirty, mean little trick and he knew it. Having land-dwellers around to keep them from fleeing into the ocean bordered cruel. Neal guided Peter and Chuck up the stairs to his apartment at June's and tried to quell the song of the ocean as he walked. He focused on his footsteps and the footsteps of his friend and Bryce's friend.

He opened his door to his apartment to a very angry Bryce. And a very panicked Mozzie, tied to a chair and squeaking through a gag.

"You had it!" he bellowed the moment he saw Neal. Neal nodded and hung his head.

"Bryce?" Chuck questioned softly, a little worried at his friend's anger. Peter moved to cover Neal and glared at Bryce.

Bryce saw his friend and Neal's friend trying to protect his brother from him and forced himself to calm down. It hurt to see others believe he would hurt his twin when he only intended to scare him a little because he was annoyed that Neal kept this from him.

Once he calmed down, he could feel that Neal was upset and apologetic.

"Why?" he asked, one some level unable to believe that they were even having this conversation.

"I found it," Neal explained, "Mozzie helped me to find it." Speaking of Mozzie, "untie him."

Bryce sighed and did so. Mozzie took a huge gasp of air as the gag came off.

"Neal! You never warned me that your crazy copy was in the city!" Mozzie said frantically.

"I didn't know," Neal responded but Mozzie wasn't really listening.

"I'm not crazy," Bryce said around the same time and Mozzie gave him a 'really?' glare.

"He's questioning me about those skins Kate gave me ages ago! What are they?"

"Guess," Neal sighed. There was a fluttering in his chest but, surely that couldn't be?

"Skins?" Peter questioned in a horrified voice. He was imagining a great number of violent crimes which he wouldn't have thought to attribute to Neal, although he wouldn't put it past Mozzie and perhaps even Kate.

To everyone's, except Bryce's, surprise, Chuck was the one to respond;

"Have you ever heard of Selkies?"

Neal missed the explanation through the roaring in his ears. For a moment he thought he was on the beach.

"Neal? Neal!" He blinked and he was back in his apartment, with Peter's hands on his shoulders and a worried Chuck eyeing him.

"Moz, where are they?" he questioned, the gravel in his voice surprising even him.

"Well, I left one in the iron box but I gave the other to the crazy clone," Mozzie admitted in embarrassment.

"Where is it?" Neal questioned, turning to Bryce. He must had convinced Mozzie to bring him one of the skins before realising that Neal actually possessed both. Or he was looking for evidence that Mozzie knew where they were and started questioning him on the location when Mozzie only brought him one skin.

"Neal?" Bryce questioned in concern. He moved closer to him and placed a hand on Neal's cheek. It was cold and damp.

_'A selkie only gets their skin stolen once.'_

**Why?**

"You need to get rid of it!" Neal yelled while he could. Hands grabbed him and pushed him onto the floor, trying to keep him calm.

"What?" Bryce questioned. They both knew that destroying the skin would kill Neal. "Why?"

When Bryce lost his skin, Neal had spoken with a few of the ancient selkies.

"'A selkie only gets their skin stolen once,'" Neal recited, shivering as he felt the pull of the waves rush over him. "Do you know why?"

"He's sick, we should get him to a hospital!" Peter raged, pacing back and forth as Chuck and Bryce tended to Neal. He was visibly shivering by now, his body cold and clammy.

"Mozzie!" Neal whimpered as he resisted the call of his skin as much as he could. He couldn't leave; there were no Peters in the ocean and if he gave into the call, he would never see any of the people he cared for again.

He heard Mozzie's pounding feet; a sound which dissolved into the rumble of storm clouds over the ocean.

He came to himself moments later as a hand gripped his wrist and pushed him to the ground.

"Uncle! Uncle!" Neal cried as Chuck held him down.

"What was that?" Bryce gasped.

"That's what I was trying to tell you," Neal gasped out, "the longer a selkie is away from its skin, the stronger the call to find it."

"What?"

Neal made them wait until Mozzie was back. He had a drink of water and tried to push the song of the ocean back to the back of his mind.

* * *

When a selkie is separated from its skin, the skin begins to give off a 'call'. There's an urge within the selkie to be whole again. At first, it's weak. But the longer the skin and the selkie are apart, the stronger the call becomes.

If a strong call reaches its selkie, the selkie could go mad trying to get their skin back. It had happened to their mother.

A selkie only gets their skin stolen once and when they are reunited with their skin, they forget about their time on land and hurry to return to the ocean. Their memories return in time but 'time' could mean hundreds of years. Those who the selkie knew during their time on land would be long gone.

* * *

"Once, in Italy, I helped another selkie get back her stolen skin. Even though she had a lover she was eager to return to, she forgot the moment she had her skin back. It wasn't that she was cruel, it's just that she couldn't resist her nature. Our nature."

Peter didn't know what to make of this. Mozzie looked interested and slightly overjoyed as everything he suspected was proven true. Chuck was nodding as if this all made sense. Bryce has a growing look of horror as Neal explained what was going on.

Peter wanted to believe that this was nonsense but, he had seen the look in Neal's eyes. Neal had thrown the worried Chuck and Bryce off him and then punched Bryce in the face before Chuck rushed in to stop him. The look in his eyes had been indescribable. The only conclusion he could reach was that it hadn't been Neal, not the Neal he knew, but something more… wild.

"You probably could feel a little from my skin," Neal said to Bryce, "which is why you were so edgy when we arrived."

"Was that was what that was?" Bryce questioned, shivering a little. Then he seemed to realise something. "Uh, did I really threaten to shoot you?" he asked Mozzie.

The little guy nodded with a solemn expression.

"The skin is now in an iron box downstairs," Mozzie explained, "and I will return it to the stash when I leave." He turned to Neal. "I assume the iron does something to dampen the call?"

Peter gave him a look which said 'I can't believe you're acting like this is normal' while Neal nodded.

"I laced the bag Kate took with metals in order to do the same thing," he explained, "it kind of backfired when she ran off with it."

"Hey, at least she returned it," Bryce said. Mozzie and Peter both were silent.

"Mozzie?" Neal prodded.

"I kind of… took it back from her," Mozzie explained. "And since you explained what to do if I found it, I followed your instructions and locked the skins in the box."

Neal sighed while Bryce was silent.

"You okay?" Chuck asked Bryce.

"I could be worse," Bryce said. "I just… never thought that I would have to choose. The land or the sea?"

"You could always hit the pool," Neal suggested with a smirk. If it had been anyone else, Bryce would have hit them. But, since it was Neal, he considered the advice.

"You've already decided, haven't you?"

Neal pointed to the tracker on his ankle.

"I still have years left on my sentence," he explained, "I'm not going anywhere until this is off."

Bryce nodded and thought about it. His skin would be safe, Neal's friend would take care of that. But, never seeing it again? He wanted to swim in the waves like he used to as a child but, that meant never seeing Chuck or Sarah or even Casey again. It meant no spying and he loved the challenges of being a spy.

The ocean still sung to him. He sighed, knowing that he wouldn't respond to that call for a long time.


	13. BD - Brood

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From Shyn on AO3,  
>  _Prompt: Neal and Bryce both ended up with different abilities due to their dragon ancestry. For example, Neal literally cannot resist shiny things and Bryce loves the adrenaline that leads from a spy life. Obviously, their abilities influenced their chosen careers. Of course, there are some downsides to being part dragon...especially when your best friend Chuck is descended from dragon hunters._
> 
> Notes: Sorry for the wait! This is a bit of a long one (and tricky to write even though I like dragons) or it felt long. If you're waiting on the next chapter of OMEN, you'll be waiting a bit longer - I'm still writing it and figuring out how to end it.  
>  As always, there has been minimal editing done to this, so apologies in advance for any mistakes.

**Brood**

* * *

Neal twirled the diamond necklace in his hand, completely entranced by the light. He lost count of how long he had been looking at it but, apparently long enough that his ever-patient brother ran out of patience.

"Focus!" Bryce scolded, snatching the necklace from Neal and hiding it behind his back. For a moment, Neal hissed and was ready to fight for his treasure, until it vanished from his sight.

Neal paused for a moment, unwilling to admit that it had happened again. His dragon blood had caused him to collect and protect another shiny thing.

"I already said no," Neal reminded Bryce. Bryce sighed and brought out the necklace again. He dangled in front of his twin.

"If you say yes, I'll give you this," he taunted. Neal's eyes narrowed.

"No." See? He could resist the call of his blood if he needed too. "Your dragon hunter friend is not going to stay here." It was probably the call of Bryce's own dragon blood that drew him to the hunter in the first place.

Ohh... he wanted that shiny. His gut squirmed uncomfortably.

Bryce sighed and slipped the necklace into his pocket.

"Fine. I'm going to ask June," he said, leaving. He didn't notice the way his pocket got lighter as he left.

Neal returned to sitting in the sun and admiring his prize. His dragon blood allowed him to make himself unnoticeable if he needed to.

* * *

Unfortunately, June said 'yes' and couldn't understand why Bryce didn't just ask Neal because of course Neal would say 'yes'. Unless the guy was a cop or non-White Collar fed. Neal was tempted to say that he was CIA but that would end very badly for him. And would put June in danger.

* * *

Peter glared at Satchmo as his traitor of a 'best friend' ran off to greet and not growl at the intruder into his home.

"Neal, the door was locked," he pointed out as his CI waltzed into his dining room.

"Huh?" Neal feigned confusion. "No it isn't."

Peter narrowed his eyes. It certainly wasn't now but it had been before Neal got to it.

"Neal!" El greeted him cheerily as she walked in with the meatloaf. "Are you staying for dinner?"

"I already ate, thanks El," Neal said with a smile. Peter's mood was slightly improved; at least Neal's presence wasn't going to lessen his share.

"Why are you here?" he asked as he started spooning peas and other veggies onto his plate.

Neal smiled weakly and clenched his hands together in front of himself. Peter almost thought he could see steam twisting around the younger man.

"Does this have to do with the," and he couldn't believe he was saying this, "'dragon-thing'?" Seriously, if one of Neal's mother's dragon friends hadn't tried to kill Peter for 'chaining her godchild, even if he was a half-breed and not fit for dragon society', then he wouldn't have found out about Neal's half-dragon blood. He also wouldn't have believed it so he didn't scold Neal for not telling him.

"Sort of," Neal said, taking a seat at the table. "See, Bryce is in town-"

"Who's Bryce?" El asked. Neal glanced at her but didn't answer the question.

"Bryce is in town and he wanted to stay with me. Which would be fine, except he brought his dragon-hunter friend with him."

"Dragon hunter?" Peter questioned, sceptical.

"Yeah. Chuck's descended from a long line of dragon-hunters and would probably love nothing more than to gut me."

"Well. That's... pleasant," El said, a frown marring her features.

"Don't most people who meet you want to gut you?" Peter questioned. He received an outraged and kicked puppy look for his comment. "There was Wilkes and-"

"Hey," Neal interrupted, "that's not fair. I actually did something to bug him. This is different. Chuck, how do I put this, radiates an aura which terrifies those with dragon's blood and gets regular people to relax in his presence."

"You're scared of this guy."

"No! Yes! Maybe? It's nature, I can't fight it! This is a guy born to kill people like me, you can't blame me for showing a little caution."

The Burkes shared a look. Peter didn't know how to handle this stuff and, for once, El didn't have any ideas either.

* * *

Mozzie walked right into Neal's apartment without stopping. If he interrupted Neal's time with anyone other than June, then good. He didn't trust the Suit with Neal anyway.

"Neal-" he started to say before he took stock of the room's inhabitants. One was a mousy looking brunette and the other looked a little like Neal but his body language was all wrong. "Who are you?"

"Hi, I'm Chuck," Chuck said with a smile and a wave. Mozzie's eyes went to the sword the man had been polishing when he entered. He then turned to the Neal look-a-like and raised his eyebrows. If this was Neal, he would indicate how he was to approach this stranger.

It took a few moments before the look-a-like to response; he was most certainly not Neal, Neal never paused for that long.

"Bryce," he stated.

"My name is of no consequence," Mozzie responded, "I merely wish to know where I can find Neal."

"You and me both," Bryce grumbled. He waved to Chuck. "I'm trying to get him to see that Chuck's an okay guy but he doesn't seem to get it."

"I work at the Buy More during the day and hunt dragons at night," Chuck explained with a friendly smile. He left out the CIA stuff because that was a secret.

"Hunt. Dragons?" Mozzie questioned slowly. Chuck wouldn't be the first person to tell Mozzie that but, he was the first to do so with a weapon sitting in front of him.

"Yeah. There are all kinds of dragons. Good kinds which bring prosperity and luck to those they like and bad kinds who like to hunt, hurt and kill people for the fun of it. And treasure. A lot of dragons like to do things for treasure. And then there are half-breeds like Bryce and you don't want to know what happens if a human gets their hands on dragon blood or teeth. Yeah. Dragon teeth are the worst. Once and a while, you get someone who thinks it's a smart idea to drop a dragon tooth on the ground and 'boom' instant undead army. Of course, said undead army always turns on the planter-"

"Okay, Chuck, enough," Bryce ordered.

Meanwhile, Mozzie's head was spinning. He didn't think real dragons, he thought it was one of those games people sometimes talked about, but it was obvious that Chuck did. So, either he was crazy or there was more going on here than Mozzie thought.

"Dragons?" he questioned, ignoring the slight squeak in his voice.

"Wait," Bryce said slowly, realisation dawning, "Neal didn't tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

* * *

Peter didn't know why but he had expected this. Maybe it was the way Neal had come running to his house. Maybe it was Neal's loose mentions of a 'Bryce' and 'Chuck' back at his apartment; and more information given about Chuck than Bryce which always sent Peter's alarm bells ringing.

So when he opened the door to a frustrated Mozzie, fiddling with his glasses, a lithe brunette with sleeked yet still unruly hair and a sword strapped to his belt and a man who looked remarkably like Neal wearing casual clothes, Peter just sighed.

"Let me guess; Chuck," he pointed to the brunette, "and Bryce," he pointed to the man who looked like Neal.

"Wow, how'd you know?" Chuck questioned as if he had pulled off some kind of magic trick.

"Let us in, Suit. We need to talk to Neal."

"He's not here."

"Don't lie to me, government sleaze. We both know that Neal runs to you if I'm not available."

"Look, Neal doesn't want to see them," Peter said, feeling bad as he said it. But, Neal was on the edge of running and that was the last thing he wanted.

"Look, Chuck is harmless," Bryce protested, "and I'm his brother. You can at least let us in."

"Not harmless!" Neal bellowed from where he was sulking on the couch. Peter rubbed the bridge of his nose as Neal confirmed that he was inside, making it even harder for him to get the people on his doorstep to leave.

Why did Neal have to bring his drama to Peter's doorstep?

"Mozzie can come in," Peter said, stepping away for the little guy to dash into his house. "And thank you for not using the back door this time."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Mozzie responded, "I always use whatever door takes my fancy. Habits make it easy for others to track you."

Peter glanced to Bryce and Chuck, just to see if they found Mozzie as ridiculous as he did. Bryce just shrugged, as if he agreed with the man and Chuck looked thoughtful.

"How do you even get to the back door?" he questioned. He had seen the gate but it was locked and there was no reason to go through it.

"Not everyone is as honest as you," Bryce responded, taking a step inside.

"I can't believe you didn't tell me about this!" Mozzie could be heard saying in the lounge. "It's proof that our governments are lying to us!"

"You're not taking this to the government," Peter found himself saying automatically. That would just cause trouble for them and for Neal; plus Neal looked rather upset at what Mozzie was saying.

He continued, "it's probably not even the governments hiding this, did it occur to you that ordinary people might not what to know about this," he certainly didn't but he couldn't change that now, "and that Neal might not want everyone knowing that he's half-dragons."

"That's right," Bryce piped up with before Mozzie could respond. "We don't want people trying to kill us just because of how we were born."

Peter nodded until that last part sunk in.

"'How'?" he questioned, glancing between Bryce and Neal. "Nevermind, I don't want to know."

"Really?" Neal questioned with his con smile. "It's why I am who I am."

"Neal. I really doubt you became a great conman and thief just because of 'how' you were born. This isn't Macbeth."

"Oh, speaking of, there's a play of that outside my radius which is-"

"No. I already sat through the play in high school, I'm not doing it again." Peter did note that Neal flashed a real smile while they were talking, which meant he was feeling better.

"Fine," Mozzie relented, feeling left out, "I shall become a secret-keeper and take this to my grave."

"I still can't believe that you didn't tell him," Bryce commented, "I mean, even the FBI guy knows."

This started Mozzie back up with demands on why the Suit got to know first. Neal had to tell him how it happened and was slightly distracted from Chuck's presence in the room.

Later, El brought in cookies while Chuck, Bryce and Neal shared stories.

* * *

The next morning, Bryce was gone when everyone woke. Neal and Chuck joined forces to track him down but it was Peter who located him first.

Apparently, Bryce had gotten 'itchy' during the night and decided to go out and look for some action, which led him to sneaking into a hostage situation and saving hostages and knocking out the criminal.

Neal had a talk to him about that because if Bryce could use his attraction to shiny things against him, then he could scold Bryce whenever the adrenaline bug hit; since that was caused by his dragon blood.


	14. CCLB - Clone Club

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From Beckers on AO3  
>  _OH! If you've ever seen Orphan Black, you'll know what I'm talking about: Neal finds out he's a clone when he meets Bryce on a job while undercover with Peter. There are other clones, maybe, that you could make up? Like, one is a devoted father of two adopted children (clones can't have kids), one is a scientist, one is Russian. Bryce found out recently, and he's been tracking them down with Team Bartowski to try and find out what's going on. CLONE CLUB!_
> 
> Notes: Okay, this one is more focused on Neal and there's no Team Bartowski. There's clones though (although Russian and scientist aren't outright stated, you can pretend they exist - I'd imagine they were the ones who helped take down the program). And for those waiting on OMEN updates, I'm working on it. It should be next. And I haven't seen Orphan Black.

**CCLB - Clone Club**

* * *

For Bryce, it all started with an email.

For Neal, it all started when he met Bryce.

* * *

"I'm a WHAT?" Neal gaped in shock and horror. There was just no way, this wasn't possible and, for once, Peter almost agreed with him.

The only difference was that Peter was aware of some of the unethical programs that were undertaken, with or without government knowledge. He hadn't heard of this but, that didn't mean it wasn't out there and that he wouldn't hunt the people behind this down.

"A clone," the man who looked like an older Neal with a crew-cut stated. He had introduced himself as 'Stanley' and he worked for the NSA.

Bryce mouthed 'sorry' at Neal like it would make this any better.

"There are laws against human cloning," Peter reminded them.

"There are laws against murder but does that stop murderers?" Stanley pointed out. "Some people will do things which are against the law, if it means they won't get caught."

"Yay," Neal muttered, looking slightly grey. Peter decided to leave the arguments until later as they weren't helping.

"Look, most of us were forcibly aged and given implanted memories," Stanley continued, "there is a batch which were allowed to grow at a normal human rate, I believe they are about twelve now."

"Thirteen," Bryce corrected.

"Thirteen," Neal muttered under his breath. Peter hoped that Diana would get back with the pick-me-up coffee for him soon.

He also wondered if this was the explanation for some of Neal's behaviour. He was younger than his appeared age, possibly no older than twenty. Then he wondered if the implanted memories made up for the lack of mental years. However, wasn't it better to experience things?

And now Peter's head hurt. He couldn't imagine how Neal was feeling.

"Look, how about we call it a day?" he suggested. Three sets of blue eyes all turned to him simultaneously. "Uh- I'm sure we can pick this up tomorrow."

"That sounds great," Neal agreed. Bryce and Stanley shared a look before Bryce nodded as well.

"All right," Stanley said gruffly, "we'll continue this tomorrow."

* * *

Neal stumbled into his apartment, thankful for Peter's presence at his side but resenting it all the same.

"Seems impossible," he commented with a smile.

"I don't understand it either," Peter shrugged. He placed the files Stanley had given Neal onto the table. "Are you going to look at these?"

Neal glanced over, a bottle of wine in his hand and shuddered. The file contained information on the clones and the profiles of some of the clones they had made contact with.

"I don't know," he said, although he knew he would have to. After all, Bryce's and Stanley's files were also in there. One thing was certain, he would need more wine.

Peter frowned and for a moment Neal wondered if he was going to leave like he planned. Elizabeth had specifically requested that he come home that night, her parents wanted to Skype with them and they wouldn't take it well if it was just her.

"I'll call tomorrow and see how you're doing," Peter said before leaving.

Neal raised an eyebrow. Did this mean that if he wasn't feeling well, he could miss out on work? Peter gave a nod as he left as a silent answer.

Peter, who rarely let him take a day off because he didn't take days off. Neal smirked; maybe this wasn't so bad.

* * *

Charlie Bowman was ten years older than Neal, married to a brunette with short hair and a kind smile and had adopted two kids. One of the kids was also one of the clones; thirteen year old Norm Bowman. Charlie worked in sales for a large corporation. His wife was a stay at home mum. Norm played soccer and basketball and his younger brother, who was a blond and obviously adopted, was more into music.

Robert Holme was a cop and a good one. He had a long list of closed cases and the nickname 'Hound' because he rarely gave up. He was younger than Neal and had slightly longer hair, more Bryce's length than his. His blue eyes were hidden behind oval sunglasses, apparently a trademark item of his.

Darren Wakefield was only twenty years old. He was an art student with a long-time girlfriend. One of his more recent purchases was a diamond ring which he saved up for by taking three part-time jobs. He was reported to always wear his trademark rainbow brooch, shaped in a bow.

Lives that could have been his.

Name after name. Similar faces, hair colours, styles and eyes. Whoever created them produced them during a three year period. Like Stanley said, the young ones were the only batch to be raised from babies and they were the second-last batch.

Neal and Bryce were the batch before them and Neal noticed something which sent more shivers down his spine.

Triston Deman, Max Tucker, Denton Whitaker, on and on the names of his batch went.

They were all marked 'deceased'. Even Bryce's was marked with two different 'deceased' dates and explanations on how he was revived.

Neal was the only one who hadn't died. He and Bryce were the only ones still alive.

He grabbed his phone and dialled the number on Stanley's file.

"Hel-"

"Am I in some kind of danger?"

There was a sigh on the other end. Neal didn't think about how similar it sounded to his.

"No. Bryce and I checked your file. Lots of close calls but-"

"But?"

"You know how when you mass produce items, you sometimes get faulty ones?"

Neal did know that and he had a feeling he knew what Stanley was suggesting.

"Are you saying I'm faulty?"

"Yes." Blunt, wasn't he? Neal like that. It meant he wasn't going to lie to him. "Basically, your group was conditioned to either be criminals, agents or military. Instead of being forced into one or the others, you were turned loose in order to see which you would choose. Most chose either criminals or military. Bryce and two others were recruited as secret agents. None ended up in the FBI. Unless you count yourself.

"But, not matter which path, you were all intended to use guns. Now, you chose to be non-violent and not use guns. You even went out of your way to avoid them. That makes you faulty. It's also the reason you haven't been gunned down like the rest of your batch."

Neal's mouth hung open, making it hard to respond. He closed it and swallowed a few times.

"Do I want to know what the point of making us was?"

"Testing survival rates or something like that. All I know is, your batch is the reason a group of researches and a few of the clones in the know decided to get together and shut the program down. Violently." Didn't really answer Neal's question but it did tell him of the fate of those behind his creation. "Now, you might want to talk to your sneaky little friend."

"What?"

"Hey, Neal!" Mozzie sung out a moment later, walking through the door like he owned the place. "Why do the suits have a watch on you?"

"And tell him we're spooks, not suits," Stanley joked before ending the call.

* * *

Mozzie was more aghast that the spooks had been able to spot him entering June's than the fact his friend wasn't all he seemed. In fact, he took Neal's news with knowing nods and interest in the other clones. He was also glad when Neal explained that he wasn't going to die the way his creators apparently intended.

Mozzie believed he had something to do with that and Neal wasn't going to correct him. Mozzie was a big influence on him and shared his opinion on guns.

"You know," Mozzie said, "I have a list of things to do if I had a clone. Would you like to borrow it?"

"I don't have a clone. I am a clone," Neal corrected him in a dry voice. He didn't really like saying it.

"I have a list for that too," Mozzie explained.

"Really?"

"Number one, kill original and take his place," Mozzie recited, "number two, if cannot kill original, mess with his life instead."

"I don't even know if there is an original," Neal pointed out, not at all surprised that Mozzie had memorised the list.

"Okay then. Number thirty-six, get together with other clones and pull off impossible heist. See numbers thirty-seven and thirty-nine for ideas."

"Pass," Neal said, pointing to his anklet. "Besides, the clones I have met are law-abiding."

"Curses. Okay, number fifty, mess with people's heads."

"Certainly an idea for the future," Neal agreed, making a mental note to see if Bryce would play along with him.

"There's twenty-two as well," Mozzie said, "get to know original, or in your case, other clones. Of course, any clone of myself would possibly have a list of things as well. I imagine a social person like yourself would prefer this option."

"Thanks, Moz," Neal said with a smile.

"Not a problem. Now hand me that wine and we'll talk about numbers twenty-five to thirty."


	15. WMTA - We Meet Again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From Brycelarkin32:  
>  _Genderbend bryce. He was turned by the ring. After he escape shaw on the chase for him. But shaw uses Neal for bait. I honestly just thought of this while petting my cat_
> 
> Notes: Been sick. Apologies if there are any mistakes (excluding pronouns related to Bryce). Also, took the cat bit; it was too good to pass up.

**WMTA - We Meet Again**

* * *

"This is crazy," Neal thought, finally voicing his thoughts.

"I don't expect you to understand," Shaw said, running his hand through the long-haired white cat dozing on his lap.

That's because this was crazy. Some crazy guy kidnaps him, says it has to do with his brother – and 'congratulations' because Bryce is a  _spy_ – who's now his  _sister_ thanks to some sick non-government experiments from a hostile spy organisation known as 'the Ring'.

Mozzie would love this, if Neal lived to tell him.

"How do I fit into this?" he couldn't help asking, since he hadn't seen his brother -sister?- in years.

"Well, Bryce has been a thorn in my side ever since he; sorry, she escaped," Shaw explained patiently. Monologuing, Neal thought in distaste. Peter should meet this guy, just to see that, yes, there are more theatrical criminals than him. "Hunting me down, never giving me enough time to settle and plan."

"Join the club," Neal grumbled. Partly to interrupt Shaw's rant and partly to establish some kind of rapport with him and make him less likely to shoot him down the track.

"Yes. You were on the run for quite a long time," Shaw mused. "But, Agent Burke caught you in the end." He would catch you as well, Neal thought. "Maybe you should have taken his wife or one of his agents and bait him into a trap."

A chill went down Neal's spine. He would never consider something like that! He also realised that this was what Shaw was planning; using him as bait to lure Bryce into a trap.

Thankfully, he was almost free. While his hands were attached to the arms of the chair, it wasn't anything he hadn't dealt with before. He just needed an opening. Shaw's hand twitched on the gun his other hand was holding; petting a cat with a gun in his hand was a really creepy image and Neal was certain it was going to feature in his nightmares for weeks.

There was a bang and something that sounded like an explosion from beyond the door behind him.

"Sounds like the rescue party is here," Shaw smirked.

"Shaw!" a woman's voice called out. There was a thump and Neal assumed it was someone trying to ram down the door.

"Sarah-" Shaw didn't get to say any more as there was a straining creak above.

Part of the roof fell in with a whump, smoke and scattering debris. Neal saw his chance and took it, jumping up from the chair and around it. It made a useless guard but he was distracted by the sight of a black-haired woman knocking Shaw unconscious.

They locked eyes, the same blue eyes. The woman nervously ran a hand through her short locks, which reached just down to her neck.

"Bryce?" he questioned in an uncertain tone, taking in the woman's curved hips and slight chest as he spoke. He would be so embarrassed if he was wrong but;

"How'd you guess?" she questioned in surprise, her voice only a little higher than it had been as a man. It was so close to Bryce's voice, tone included, that Neal found himself smiling and accepting the situation. "It took a lot of evidence for Chuck to believe me."

"He told me about what happened to you," he explained pointing at Shaw. "And about you working for the CIA."

Bryce winced. In another life, Neal would have been angry and annoyed that his brother chose to be an agent, especially when he was on the other side of the law but things were slightly different now.

Punctuated by the cries outside of 'Freeze, FBI'.

Bryce gave him a look which basically said, 'don't you need to run now?'. Neal smiled and suppressed a laugh.

"I guess they didn't keep you up to date in whatever secret underground lab you were in." And he made a mental note to talk to Mozzie. They needed to find some way to expose these guys or at least make sure they couldn't do this to anyone else.

Peter came bursting into the room with a cry of 'Neal!', gun held low but still in his hands and wary eyes scanning the room.

"Hey, Peter," Neal said with a wave, "you're a little late with the rescue this time."

"So I've been informed," Peter said with a cursory glance at Bryce. Neal Caffrey and a woman -who he hadn't run a background check on and okayed- meant only one thing in his mind; trouble.

"Peter, meet my twin sister," he couldn't help snickering a little as he finished with, "Britney."

"Twin?" Peter gasped, taking a more interested look between the man and woman. They did share a lot of features but, Neal was a conman and the woman didn't look happy with the name.

Neal was always partial to the name 'Britney' but didn't have a chance to use it in any cons. People tended to instinctively trust men more than women and he could always call Kate or Alex if he had needed a woman for a con.

"Yes," 'Britney' ground out as she rubbed between her eyebrows. "But I've had nothing to do with Neal's criminal career."

"Wow, way to throw me under the bus, sis." Bryce gave him a look which basically said 'you're dead'. Neal had forgotten how much fun it was to mess with his brother-now-sister. "I work for the FBI now," Neal explained to Bryce. The shocked look he received annoyed him as much as it amused him. "As a CI."

"With a radius," Peter pointed out, pulling out a new anklet. Shaw had removed his while stuffing him into the back of his suspicious black van.

"Ah, how could I forget?" He held out his ankle, even though he hated the next part as the weight clipped to his ankle.


	16. AGB - Adventures of Ghost Bryce

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From Happy on AO3:  
>  _What do you think about a prompt where Bryce Larkin really died in the Intersect 2.0 room? The only plot twist is that due to their close connections, his twin brother and Chuck can both see his ghost! Neal of course, is shocked when he can suddenly see his brother's ghost after he is grieving, but glad to see Bryce isn't lost forever. Although others rarely can see Bryce, they will sometimes see what they think is Neal out of the corner of their eye, or their book will turn pages or whatever._
> 
>  _Maybe Chuck goes to work with the FBI for a while, and Neal, Chuck, and Ghost!Bryce solve crimes, like Bryce's murder!_ \- This part to come later.

**AGB - Adventures of Ghost Bryce**

* * *

When Bryce died, Neal sat in his cell and cried, for about twenty minutes.

"Huh, and here I thought you didn't care," Bryce's voice piped up. Neal jolted and looked up at his brother's transparent form, floating before him. His jaw dropped. Bryce looked around. "Prison? Really? What'd you do?"

Neal blinked, thought that maybe he was crazy and then decided he didn't care because he got to see his brother again.

* * *

Chuck didn't have it so easy. It wasn't until Sarah kissed him, months after Bryce died, that he found he was suddenly being haunted.

"About time!" Maybe not so suddenly, because Bryce seemed to have intimate knowledge about his life. Chuck stared at him and blinked in confusion. He rubbed his eyes but the apparition was still there.

"What?"

Bryce started and his jaw dropped.

"You can see me?" he questioned. When Chuck nodded, a wide smile grew on his face. "You can see me! Yes!"

Chuck didn't know what to think about that, at least until Bryce saved him when FULCRUM tracked him down to the Buy More. Bryce was also able to explain what FULCRUM was, information Chuck relayed to the team under the guise of 'Intersect flash'.

* * *

Neal was jumpy today. Peter wondered what was causing it but couldn't come up with a plausible theory, unless Mozzie testing some kind of long-range transmitter counted. At random times, Neal almost seemed to jump out of his chair or jolt in surprise. At least one of those times had involved a coffee and a new stain on the carpet.

Diana came up to him and even told him that she caught Neal talking to himself.

Peter locked eyes with Neal and gave him his best glare. Neal cocked his head for a moment, as if listening to something and then chucked. And Peter figured it out.

Neal was playing a practical joke on them, now that was plausible and very likely.

The flash of another Neal standing behind Neal was only Peter's imagination. He probably just moved his head too fast.

* * *

Having a ghost following you around could be handy. Chuck could send Bryce to watch over the Buy More and report if the employees were getting out of hand. He could have Bryce watch their targets and report if they come anywhere near him while he and Sarah searched target's rooms and belongings.

It was possible that Chuck was growing a little too reliant on his ghost friend. There were times when he would turn around, about to speak to Bryce's transparent figure only to be met with empty air.

He asked Bryce where he went those times he vanished without instruction or warning.

"Haunting," was the response, "I made a guy spill his coffee in fright once."

* * *

Chuck should have known that a mission involving a medium would cause some problems. Although, in his defence, he thought most of that was smoke and mirrors as opposed to real abilities to see spirits.

Bryce, ironically enough, agreed with him.

So, when the medium turned her wrinkly face to him and then looked at the spot behind him where Bryce was leaning against the wall and said, "you're being haunted," Chuck had a feeling they were in trouble.

"I, what?" he still blurted out in surprise.

"Yes," she murmured as Casey gave Chuck a 'I can't believe you believe this wacko' look. "Someone you are close to, connected to... family? No, a friend. A friend who had a great impact on your life."

"Wow, 'a great impact'." Bryce smirked and Chuck glared back at him.

"A great impact that left me in a state of constant fear, terror and stress."

'Sorry', Bryce mouth, although he didn't look it.

"I'm getting a name..."

Chuck and Bryce shared a look.

"Bryce," Bryce muttered into the medium's ear. "My name is Bryce. Bryce Larkin."

The medium repeated this and Sarah gasped while Casey shifted uncomfortably.

"Oh, and I was a spy before Casey shot me," Bryce continued. "Yeah, that guy sitting in front of you and looking grumpy. The girl, Sarah, was my girlfriend. She's dating Chuck now and I'm okay with that. And Chuck, Chuck's a national secret. If I tell you any more, well, the men in black will turn up at your house and possibly find those secrets you are hiding. Oh, and Chuck knows about those secrets."

The medium's face paled.

"Are you okay?" Chuck asked in a fake-concerned voice, trying to hide his laughter. "What does Bryce say?"

"Excuse me," the medium said, standing up.

"What just happened?" Sarah questioned. They arrested the medium less than an hour later.


	17. AGB2 - More Adventures of Ghost Bryce

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Same as previous: _Maybe Chuck goes to work with the FBI for a while, and Neal, Chuck, and Ghost!Bryce solve crimes, like Bryce's murder!_
> 
> They didn't solve a crime but you know they're going to. Here's Chuck meeting Neal; neither is pleased but Bryce wants them to at least get along.

**More Adventures of Ghost Bryce**

* * *

"New York, New York!" Bryce sung and Chuck suppressed a whimper. He knew that Bryce hadn't approved the General's decision to send them to New York but he really didn't consider it worthy of 5 hours of show tunes and a demonstration of how ghosts didn't need to breathe.

"Back in a moment," Chuck said to Sarah. She gave him a concerned look and he probably looked like he was suffering from some kind of migraine. When she asked where he was going, he responded with 'toilet' and dashed off.

He supposed he was the only one to hear the foot beats behind him. Sarah watched him go and thought she caught a glimpse of someone familiar running after him. A flash of dark hair which almost seemed to vanish a moment later.

"Okay, I get it!" Chuck grumbled to Bryce once they were in private. "I shouldn't have told the General about what was going on with the FBI. But, you made this 'Fowler' sound like a really bad guy and now OPR is covering up files."

"And Neal Caffrey isn't part of it!" Bryce bellowed, the mirrors in the bathroom rattling with the sound of his voice.

"I told the General that, but she still wants us to check it out. He is a felon and conman."

"But not an agent!"

"The Ring has agents everywhere, including in the criminal element."

"Shut up! Neal has nothing to do with the Ring and he's grieving! His girlfriend died less than a year ago because of Fowler!"

"What if Neal was offered Fowler in return for joining the Ring?"

"Neal wouldn't do that!"

"I believe that but, Sarah and Casey and Beckman don't. And they're the ones who decided to come out here. If you want to change things, then haunt them."

Bryce frowned and his shoulders slumped. A moment later, he vanished, leaving Chuck feeling guilty.

* * *

Neal sighed with relief when he felt a blast of cold air behind him. He hadn't seen his brother in days and was worried that the ghost had vanished.

"Hey," he said quietly, turning to face the familiar blue eyes and dark hair, forever frozen in time.

Bryce didn't look happy.

"What's wrong?"

Bryce didn't respond.

"You okay?" Silence. "Bryce?" The ghost in question didn't even flinch. "Please say something."

"You know how there are some visiting agents coming in?" Bryce finally said. Neal nodded.

"Some FBI big-shots from California."

"Well, they're not FBI. They're CIA and they're coming because they think you or Fowler have a connection to an organisation known as 'The Ring'."

"I would never join an organisation with such an inelegant and unoriginal name." Neal paused for a moment. "What did I do to get on the CIA radar?" Bryce looked guilty. "Bryce?"

"There may be a CIA agent who can see me," Bryce explained, "and I told him about what happened to Kate and all the stuff you're looking into and then the agent went and tipped off his superiors."

"Of course," Neal sighed. "Well, whatever. I'll just smile and play nice and they'll go away."

Bryce shifted in the air. 'It's not that easy,' his body language said.

Neal raised an eyebrow, silently indicating that Bryce should 'explain.' It was something he had unconsciously picked up from Peter.

Bryce did. He told Neal about how one of the agents was his best friend, one used to be his girlfriend and the other shot him once and no, it wasn't the shot that killed him. Plus, the CIA hadn't been able to get a photo of Neal Caffrey and they didn't know that Bryce even had a twin.

Oh yeah, this was going to be a problem.

* * *

Chuck and the team arrived early. They went straight from the airport to the White Collar office, which didn't give Bryce any time to explain to Chuck what awaited them.

Bryce and Neal were still trying to come up with some kind of plan when Sarah walked in.

"Looks like we'll be winging it," Neal whispered, flinching when she turned to look at him.

"What?" she gasped as Casey and Chuck walked in behind her. Chuck looked pale but had a coffee in his hand which was quickly returning his colour. "Bryce?"

Casey made a grumbling grunt and Chuck jolted.

Neal froze, even as Chuck's eyes tracked behind him to where ghost Bryce was standing.

"Wait, you can see him?" Neal questioned, pointing back to Bryce. Bryce had said as much but he hadn't realised how much he hadn't believed there was another person out there who could see his brother until he had evidence.

"Him?" Chuck repeated quietly in confusion, realisation appearing on his face a moment later. "Wait? You can too?"

Everyone looked between them like they were crazy. None of them could see ghost Bryce standing on Neal's desk.

"Chuck, this is Neal, my twin," Bryce explained, "and Neal, this is Chuck. He's the agent friend I was telling you about."

"So, you knew Bryce?" Neal questioned, narrowing his eyes at Chuck.

"We're friends," Chuck responded, "and I've never heard of you. Neal."

"That's because I ran off and changed my name," Neal said with a shrug. "I'm the black sheep of the family."

"Of course," Chuck said, unconsciously glaring at Neal.

"No, no, no," Bryce said, "you should be friends!" He turned to Neal. "Neal, Chuck came to help you get Fowler." And then to Chuck, "and Chuck, Neal's a good guy. He's the one I play tricks on."

Neal and Chuck both turned to Bryce. Neal raised an eyebrow and Chuck frowned thoughtfully. Everyone else was confused.

"Fine," Neal finally sighed, "friends." He held out a hand and Chuck took it. After a moment Neal turned to Peter. "Peter, this is Chuck. He's a friend of my brother's."

"Sarah, Casey, this is Neal. Bryce's twin," Chuck said.

"So, who wants to find a corrupt FBI agent?" Neal asked Team Bartowski, flashing a toothy smile.


	18. MMRTL - Immortal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From Elvaralind on AO3:  
>  _What about if the twins were immortal? That would explain how they seem to have nine lives between them!_
> 
> Notes: This was difficult to write for some reason... sorry if it's not up to standard.

**MMRTL - Immortal**

* * *

Neal hated guns. They made it easy to kill someone, just with the press of a trigger. They also made his life very complicated.

So, when a jumpy CEO pulled out a gun and shot him right thought the heart, Neal frowned and glared at him before passing out. His last thoughts were that this was going to be a bad day.

His heart stopped and he hated the feeling of being crushed right before his lungs screamed for air at the moment he woke up. The light blurred his vision into white as he took in air and steadied his revived heart.

Jones and Diana jumped back, Jones spitting out a string of swears he learnt before he joined the FBI. Neal skidded in back in surprise, a hand jumping to his heart and the spot where a bullet wound had been. There was no sign of it on his body, just a bloody hole in his shirt.

"Not another one," he sighed, sitting a finger through the hole. He had learnt the hard way that bloody bullet holes couldn't be mended easily.

"What the-" Jones questioned, his face one of shock and unable to completely understand the scene in front of him.

"Caffrey, this had better not be some kind of sick joke," Diana said, glaring down at him with her hands on her hips.

Neal sighed and stood up, dusting off his pants for good measure.

"No joke," he said in a serious voice.

"So there was some reason you had to fake your death?"

"Well, I am the master of faking things I can't have," Neal said with a smirk. He had the warehouse of forged paintings to prove it. Mozzie kept them on hand in case he decided to go after the real ones at any time, which was unlikely with the anklet.

"What? Not that I'm not glad to hear you admit that there are things you can't have but, death?"

"Please tell me you don't need a visual," Neal said as visuals could get messy and traumatise the person they were for. Kate never did forgive him for shooting himself in front of her.

"I need an explanation," she demanded.

"I'm immortal. I can't die and I don't age. Thankfully, I can pass for anywhere from twenty-something to thirty-something so I can trick people into thinking I'm ageing."

"Bull."

Neal frowned and was about to respond when Peter burst into the room. They stared at each other and Neal felt guilty for the anguish he saw on Peter's face. Peter had been there when he had been shot.

"Uh... I can explain?" he said, holding up his hands. He didn't need to because Diana repeated what he had said to Peter, although she did so in a disbelieving and angry tone.

"Well, that explains a bit," Peter said, scratching at his neck nervously.

"Huh?"

* * *

Right after Neal and Peter made their deal, Peter had been working late when someone appeared in his office door. The man looked like Neal Caffrey, if Neal ever wore a Fed suit.

He pulled up his pant leg, exposing his bare leg in lieu of an introduction.

"I'm not Neal Caffrey. And I'm here to warn you that if you ever abuse him or his gift, then I will personally hunt you down and ruin you."

And then the stranger was gone. Peter had tried to track him down, but he had been just as clever as Neal.

* * *

"I thought he meant your forging skills," Peter said, "but I can see how someone might abuse immortality." He gave Neal a pointed glare. "Just how many files does the FBI have on you?"

Neal tilted his head and gave him a look that said, 'really? You really expect me to confess?'

"Neal. We've already past the statute of limitations on everything except the crimes attributed to James Bonds, later identified as Neal Caffrey. And I know you've probably checked the cold case files for your work."

"Uh... I may have been involved in a bank robbery in 1962," Neal muttered, his face flushing. "Stupid agent in charge gave me a stupid name."

"'Benny Bank Blower'?" Peter mused with a smirk. The name had been chosen for its alliteration and for how 'Benny' managed to blow in and out, taking whatever he wanted and getting away without anyone being able to ID him; like the wind. "I guess this explains why I originally thought you were a copycat of older criminals."

"You what?"

"Your MO matched some of the older files."

"Oh, now these I have to see," Diana said. She didn't care whether this was real or not but Neal was getting all embarrassed over old, cold cases with silly names. It was perfect blackmail.

Neal gave her a playful wounded look.

* * *

They forgot about it. The average person didn't go around dying every other day so Diana and Jones forgot about how Neal was practically immortal. Peter treated every mission with caution, just as always, and never let Neal get into more danger than any other agent.

* * *

They were on a case when the gunshot sounded.

"That's not one of ours, is it?" Jones questioned from the van moments before Neal's voice rang through with, "hey, someone fired a gun nearby and Smith rabbited. What's going on?"

Peter pulled out his gun.

"I'm going in." He needed to get Neal out of there before they could figure out what happened. He jumped out of the van with Diana following behind him and dashed across the street and into the office building where Neal had been meeting the suspect.

They met on the third floor, Neal dashing past.

"It came from this way!" he said as he past them. Peter cursed under his breath as he followed Neal. Only he would have the luck to end up with a CI who ran towards the gunshots instead of away.

They moved down the hall and Neal opened the only closed door there. Peter noticed with a growing sick feeling that Neal immediately paled and stepped back.

"..rcye..." he gasped.

"Neal?" Peter questioned, reaching his partner's side. He glanced into the room and flinched.

A man who looked exactly like Neal was lying on the floor with a bullet hole in his chest. It was strangely reminiscent of the time Neal had been shot dead and Peter wondered if this was the man who had visited him.

If not, how many were there?

"Bryce," Neal said quietly.

"Neal," Peter stated, holding onto Neal to stop him from dropping to the floor. "Is he like you?"

Neal shivered violently at the question.

"Yes, but, you never know. We never know if we're going to revive. One time, one day, we might not. What if this is it? What if-" He stopped speaking and Peter wrapped him in a hug.

"Alright, we need to get this place cornered off," he said. He released Neal and turned to Diana.

"On it," she said with a smirk on her face. It wasn't often she saw Peter comfort someone.

* * *

Bryce groaned. He hated when he revived. His chest hurt but at least he wasn't in the morgue this time. It wasn't cold enough. Still cold though, he reached out and gripped the blanket covering him and wrapped it tighter around him.

"About time," a voice said, startling him into wakefulness.

Bryce jumped up, hand going for his gun but only meeting air. He should have considered that the room wasn't empty!

He stared at the person sitting on a chair, watching him. The brown thinning hair and eyes were familiar. Where had he seen this guy before?

"Agent Burke?" he questioned in confusion. What was the FBI doing here? He really hoped they didn't think he was Neal.

"Agent Larkin?" Peter questioned in an amused tone.

"I died, right?"

Peter nodded.

"So, why are you here?"

"Neal was on the other side of the building when you were shot. Came running and was the first here."

"What?"

"We were meeting a guy who claimed to do business here."

Bryce nodded, that sounded familiar. The mark had told him the same thing.

"This was a set-up, wasn't it?" He cursed. "This is why I stay out of New York."

"No. Your team checked with mine, we're looking at two different people. They had no idea that you and Neal are related or even that two meetings were going on here." Peter handed him a file. "Looks like the guy who owns part of this floor rents it out for 'meetings'. I guess you guys will be taking this case."

"Mission."

"Same thing. And I don't care. I'd like to stay out of what the CIA does."

"Smart," Bryce commented approvingly.

"Bryce!" Neal cried out happily as he burst through the door. Peter gave him a curious look; how had he known that Bryce was awake?

Bryce smirked at him and reached out, picking a bug off the leg of his seat. He held it up for Peter to see.

Peter frowned, disapprovingly. Neal just shrugged.

"Don't ever do that again," Neal said to Bryce a moment later. Bryce sighed.

"I'm already going to get the talk from Chuck and Sarah."

"Then maybe you shouldn't get shot so much." Neal glared. "You 'died' twice in as many years and now a third time. Take care of yourself."

Bryce rolled his eyes.

"He has a point," Peter said, "and that's all I'm going to say on that." He stood up and moved to guide Neal out of the room.

"Peter?" Neal questioned.

"His team has dibs," Peter whispered to him. Indeed, Chuck and Sarah were standing outside.


	19. TCA - The Child Allergy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From fruedianswillslip on AO3:  
>  _A fic where the twins actually turn into little kids somewhat regularly, like a curse would be pretty amazing. Like, instead of turning at the full moon, they turn every second tuesday of an even month if the moon has been crescent for more than half the time or something ridiculous. Neal and Brycenever really figured it would be much of a problem, they could childlock the doors if it ever happens...but it happens like three times in a row to them at really innoportune times_
> 
> Notes: There are intentional grammar and spelling errors in Neal's and Bryce's speech.

**TCA - The Child Allergy**

* * *

There was a reason Neal put 'Allergy Alert: Nutmeg' onto his file during his first week at the FBI. Yes, it was information which could be used against him but, it was also important that the team knew not to give him any. Besides, it was handwritten into his file; the file Peter only shared with the team.

It was to avoid situations like the current one, where Neal only reached up to the conference room chairs and Peter's frustrated voice sounded like furious banging to his ears. He knew later, he would be embarrassed about bursting into tears but right now he couldn't help it. Peter's yelling was frustrating him and hurt his ears.

"Peter!" Diana scolded him and Neal flinched as she pulled him into a hug. "Shh," she hummed, rubbing his back. It was nice and helped him to breathe and calm down.

His chest sobbed a little as Diana tried to calm his five-year old self down. His chest hurt, his eyes hurt and he hated this.

He heard Peter sigh before he was gathered up into strong arms and lifted up onto the conference room table.

"It'll be okay," Peter said, putting aside his disbelief at the situation for the sake of the terrified child in their conference room. "Do you know how this happened?"

"N-nugmeg," Neal stammered, unable to pronounce the word properly.

"You mean nutmeg?" Jones questioned, looking at the cupcakes which had caused the problem. Then he cursed. "Grandma's secret ingredient. I completely forgot."

"Really, Jones?" Peter questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"Even I remember that Neal's allergic to nutmeg," Diana said. Then she looked to the kid. "Although, I've never heard of an allergy which does this."

Neal frowned defiantly at her, silently trying to convey that he wasn't going to explain that anytime soon.

"How long is it going to last?" Peter asked Neal. Neal blinked at him, impossibly large blue eyes trying to process what he was asking.

"Donno," he finally responded with a pout. "I'm hungry." He reached out for another cupcake.

"No," Peter said, slapping his hand away from it. His mind was running a mile a minute, trying to figure out what to do with his kid CI and how to explain it to the higher ups. He barely believed it and he watched as his adult CI shrunk.

Would more nutmeg make it worse?

"I'm going to take these away now," Diana said, picking up the tray.

"We should probably hide this," Jones suggested, waving his hand to indicate the now-bored child swinging his feet from the table. "But give the little guy a call. He might know what's going on."

Peter nodded, although he also knew that he couldn't leave Neal at the FBI while he tried to figure this out.

* * *

Bryce blinked up at the guy with the gun and, before he could process what had happened, shot him. The recoil sent him flying onto his back and hurt his finger.

Bryce hiccupped as tears gathered in his eyes. He pulled his too-large shirt around him and used his belt to hold it around his waist.

He needed to get out of here before someone found him. As a five-year old, he couldn't defend himself. He opened the door and stepped out into the hallway.

Fear coiled in his gut at the too-long path filled with doors. It was much bigger than he remembered and he had no idea where to go now.

"Bryce? You okay?" A voice called over his comm. He whimpered. "Bryce?"

"I'm heading to his location now," another voice added, this one male and kind. Bryce took a calming breath at the sound.

Chuck was looking for him. A flash of white at the corner of his eye made him turn.

"Chuck!" he cried happily, holding out his arms and clutching onto his friend's leg. Chuck would get him out of here!

"What the-?" Chuck questioned. Bryce just gripped his leg tighter. It was warm and comforting and smelled like safety. He smiled and only let go when Chuck lifted him up. "Bryce?" he asked in a disbelieving tone. Chuck already knew it was him, because the CIA had files on what Bryce looked like as a child and he had flashed on them.

"Chuck!" Bryce responded in a much happier tone than his adult self used. There was no need to hold back when he was a child. The world always seemed more condensed when he was a child. The 'now' was more important than the future and his head refused to follow the normal paths of his adult thinking.

"How is possible?"

"My brother goes small and I do too!" he explained. "No matter where he is! Dere was this one time, um, many weekends away when he goed small and then I goed small and there was this monster. It was a painting, I think." Chuck nodded along like this made sense while he worried about how to fix this. "Ah!" Bryce bounced in his arms and waved at someone behind him. "It's Casey! Hi! I shooted the bad guy for youse!" Bryce pointed at the room he came out of. "He in there! I did a good job, right?"

Casey gave Chuck a glare and inquiring grumble. Bryce deflated at the lack of praise.

"Did I do wrong?" he asked, his chin wobbling.

Casey looked at Chuck and he didn't even need to speak. The words 'Bartowski, it's your job to fix this' hung in the air between them.

* * *

Diana and Jones had both insisted that Peter take Neal home to his place. Peter hoped he didn't need a baby car seat or something as he drove and was relieved to make it to the front door without incident. As soon as he opened the door, Neal was inside and bouncing up the steps.

"Too slow!" he laughed from the top of the stairs.

* * *

"Too slow!" Bryce chucked down at the couple watching him with slightly worried gazes. Chuck and Sarah had brought him to their home while they tried to figure out how to fix it. Bryce glanced around with wonder. "Do you guys have an Xbox?"

* * *

Neal scribbled across the paper El had given him with a small frown of concentration. It looked like a bunch of coloured scrawls. But, Peter found that the scrawls and scribbles combined to form an image of the White Collar office. He could see Neal's desk and Jones', with a brown scribble that sort of looked like a figure. There were zigzag stairs which lead up to his office and the conference room.

"Wow," he commented, "a little genius. I should have known."

Neal giggled.

* * *

Chuck stared in disbelief at the screen. It brightly announced 'Player 2 Wins' while victory music played in the background.

"How? Are you using cheat codes?" Morgan questioned, staring down at his little opponent. He had come around for a visit and decided to help them with babysitting. Which both Chuck and Sarah were glad about. Sarah had no idea how to act around kids, excluding her little sister who she had both time and her mother's support to get to know. Chuck was good with children but had no idea how to act around a child Bryce. This was his best friend, the guy who taught him to play pool and the guy who helped make him a spy, looking way too young and acting like he didn't have a care in the world. It was weird. Weirder than normal that is.

"No," Bryce giggled, as if to prove Chuck's current musings true. "Another round?"

"Alright, little Nemesis," Morgan said, using the nickname he had come up with in less than five minutes of meeting the shrunk Bryce. "Bring it on."

"I could let you win?" Bryce suggested with a smirk.

"Don't you dare," Morgan responded as the game loaded a new round. They slammed buttons for a few moments before he asked, "so, how did you end up like this? Mad scientist?"

"Donno," Bryce responded, which actually meant that he wasn't going to answer that question.

"Do you at least know how to fix it?"

"Parsley."

"Huh?" Morgan and Chuck said at once. Morgan paused the game as Bryce looked up at them both.

"Parsley. I eat it and then we fixed!"

"'We'?" Morgan questioned. He hadn't been told about the 'brother' Bryce mentioned.

"Me and Neal," Bryce told them, as if it was obvious. "Neal turned us young and I make us adults."

"Parsley," Chuck mused, leaving the room to tell Sarah. Morgan sighed as his friend left.

"Do we have to change you back? I like you like this, little Nem."

Bryce's smile faded a little and he stared at the ground, running his hand over it.

"I like me like this too. But, Neal needs be adult."

Morgan hoped that this 'Neal' person actually existed and wasn't some kind of imaginary friend of Bryce's. He had feeling that Chuck would look into it, once Bryce was back to normal.

* * *

Neal groaned and held his head. He could already feel the child-to-adult headache beginning to form. It was a bit like a quick hangover, lasting around five minutes, but not quick enough.

"Ow," he whimpered.

"You okay?" Peter asked, bringing him a glass of water. He had been surprised when the young Neal suddenly flinched and bolted for the nearest room to lock himself in. And then he had been amused to hear Neal's deeper adult voice ask for clothes a few moments later.

Now a fully grown Neal was sitting on his couch, looking like he was pain.

"It'll fade," Neal explained.

"What happened?" Peter questioned, unable to wait for answers. "Why'd you turn back?"

"Bryce," Neal said. Peter raised an eyebrow at the answer which wasn't an answer. "He's my twin brother. We tend to stay the same age."

Peter couldn't understand what Neal was implying. Thankfully, El was there.

"So, he became a kid too?" she asked. Neal winced and nodded.

"I hope he doesn't kill me over this. If he had a mission, he might be ready to read me the riot act." He caught the amused expression on Peter's face. "Yeah, my brother's in law enforcement. Laugh it up."

"I won't," Peter promised, still smirking. "But Diana will love this."

Neal sighed. He didn't know whether that was better or worse than the 'original Neal Caffrey' currently hanging in a frame on the Burke's wall.

* * *

Chuck caught Bryce climbing out of the second story window. He stood on the ground, staring up at the man climbing down the rope.

"Really?" he questioned. Bryce had locked himself in their guest room and now was trying to run away? That wasn't going to happen. Especially since Casey had cameras on their house at all times and noticed the rope being thrown out the window.

"Um…" Bryce didn't seem to be able to think of anything to say.

"We're going back inside," Chuck said.

"I'm not going to explain."

"Fine. But you're still joining us for dinner." Bryce sighed and dropped from the rope, wondering exactly when Chuck had grown up.


	20. BD2 – Dragon Care Secrets

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From Happy on AO3:  
>  _Oooh I love the way you did the shinies! Really well done and the way you explained their dragon blood/heritage was really well done. I'd like to read more of these. Perhaps a sequel around the myth that dragons purr when they get happy?_  
>  _Always an opportunity for Twin!cuddling..._
> 
> Notes: No twin cuddling but twin sleeping instead (you could imagine they're cuddling in their sleep).

**BD2 – Dragon Care Secrets**

* * *

Chuck's phone buzzed with a message. He took one look at it and knew that this would probably end badly.

"Oh, mission?" Morgan questioned, popping up on the other side of the counter.

"It's the other kind of mission," Chuck responded, holding up the phone. The message was from a house gnome he knew who lived in Burbank. He was a nice guy, although the company he kept was strange at times. He was also a good source of gossip.

_"Not notice what's at their feet, humans do,"_  he was fond of saying.

"Yeah, I'm out." Morgan had bad experience back in eighth grade when he annoyed the house gnome. The revenge had been quick, painful and embarrassing. "How about you take angel boy instead?"

Chuck looked over at Bryce. Bryce was in the Buy More every other day when he didn't have a mission, sneaking in and out in order to make use of its connection to Castle. Since Chuck and Morgan had both been seen taking to him, the rest of the employees were happy to ignore him.

"I'm a dragon," Bryce said, "and dragons have very good hearing."

"A human with good hearing would have heard me," Morgan pointed out.

"Come on, Bryce," Chuck said, hoping to avoid a verbal sparring match between Morgan and Bryce, "we've got a gnome to visit."

"Oliver?" Bryce asked. Chuck nodded.

"He's heard chatter of a dragon tooth being brought into town," he explained. Bryce smiled and hummed.

"Was that a purr?" Morgan asked incredulously, snapping Bryce out of his happy mood.

"What? No!"

Chuck thought about it and realised Morgan was right. Bryce had made a rolling sound, like a continuous 'rrrr'.

"I think it was," he commented with an apologetic look at Bryce.

"I do not purr!"

"Here, let me check." Morgan reached towards Bryce and Bryce moved back, hitting the counter.

"What? You know I can throw you over this, right?"

"Yeah, but that would break your cover and look very suspicious, wouldn't it? Now hold still." Morgan responded, reaching out and scratching behind Bryce's ear.

Bryce glared at him. Moments passed.

"Can I go?" Bryce asked sarcastically.

"Fine," Morgan responded, disappointed.

* * *

Chuck knocked on Bryce's door and was surprised when Peter answered it.

"Uh... hi?" he said, surprised. The FBI agent lived in New York. "What brings you to Burbank?"

"Some guy stole a dragon tooth from another guy and the other guy is influential and pulled strings to get me and Peter chasing after him."

"Hi, Neal," Chuck called to the ex-conman inside the apartment.

"Hey, Charles." Chuck didn't miss the way Neal backed up a bit. No matter what he did, he couldn't get the ex-conman to be comfortable in his presence.

Peter let Chuck in.

"See Peter? They can handle it," Neal insisted as Chuck mentioned that he was also here about a dragon tooth.

Peter didn't look convinced.

"Neal, this is an important job. We need to bring this stolen item," of course, Peter couldn't bring himself to say 'dragon tooth' even after everything he had seen, "back to New York and its rightful owner."

"'Rightful owner'?" Chuck questioned. More often than not, he destroyed such things because they were powerful, dangerous and the original creature didn't care enough to want it back.

"No such thing," Bryce pointed out. He was sitting at the table, hunched behind a laptop and typing furiously about something.

Peter and Neal shared looks.

"This guy comes pretty close," Neal said, "the tooth was forcibly yanked and he wants it back on principle."

"Ah. Doesn't want others thinking it's easy to steal from him," Bryce commented, although his tone conveyed that he thought it probably was easy to steal from him. How could anyone get close enough to a dragon to steal a tooth otherwise?

"Anyway, we're going to investigate-"

"I was just going to break in and steal it back," Chuck interrupted, causing both twins to laugh and Peter to glare at him. "Well, it's faster?"

"No. We need proof to confirm that the person we're after is the one who did the crime and then we apply for a warrant."

A few moments passed before Chuck sighed.

"At least this means Bryce and Neal will have a few days together."

* * *

Chuck woke up. He had fallen asleep while over at Bryce's and someone had moved him to a bed. Not the guest bed, which Chuck assumed Peter had. Or Neal.

He rolled over and was about to go back to sleep when he realised what he could hear. He had missed it when he first woke because it was almost like background noise.

A 'rrrr' purr sounded from outside. Curious, Chuck sat up. Neal and Bryce were both sleeping on the floor, sleeping bags crumpled under them and sheets covering their chests.

And they were purring. In their sleep.

"Morgan was right," Chuck mused to himself, picking up his phone which someone had conveniently placed on the bedside table and recording the sleeping half-dragons who were having happy dreams.


	21. HC - Hotel California

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From Happy   
> _Prompt: Neal and Bryce switch bodies. They...don't notice for a while. It's awkward._
> 
> _(I know identical twins can actually tell each other apart, but for the sake of the story, you can pretend they can't if you want to actually do it.)_
> 
> Notes: Note quite awkward as eye-opening for the twins. Also, Neal's way of checking who's body he's in is to pull off his shirt.

**HC - Hotel California**

* * *

Neal woke up. Something was off but, he shrugged it off. He climbed out of bed and went through his morning routine on automatic and half-asleep.

The suits seemed a bit off but it was a weekend so he didn't mind; he had a case to finish and a rich suspect to woo into Peter's sting.

* * *

Bryce woke up. Something was off but, he shrugged it off. He climbed out of bed and went through his morning routine on automatic and half-asleep.

His gun was missing. Strange and a bit of a worry but he could just get Casey to search for it later; that man had a way with guns.

* * *

Neal and Bryce opened their doors. Neither looked around, they just moved.

* * *

"Where's your watch Caffrey?" Bryce blinked at the tall, imposing FBI agent Jones who appeared from around the corner.

* * *

"Hey Bryce, I thought we were going to breakfast together?" Chuck asked, catching Neal right before the elevator arrived.

* * *

Bryce thought there was no way he was in New York. Then he followed Jones into the FBI van and tried to hide his surprise at the tall, New York buildings.

"Jones says you lost the watch?" And there was Special Agent Peter Burke, FBI of the New York, White Collar branch.

Bryce nodded dumbly. What was going on?

* * *

"So, you're not Bryce?" Chuck questioned. Neal nodded, glancing out the window at the deep blue sky. There were only a few sky scrapers in sight and nothing as tall as New York's.

What was going on?

* * *

"Really?" Peter Burke questioned sceptically. He held out his hand and Diana dropped a watch into it. "Then how come Diana found it sitting on your beside table?"

Bryce sighed.

"Can we just get this done, I have a phone call to make."

The agents exchanged surprised looks.

* * *

"Bryce, you are so dead when I find you," Neal grumbled into the mirror. Staring back was a bullet scar, correction, TWO bullet scars! One near the heart and another near the gut. Neal didn't need to be a doctor to know that both were in lethal areas. "'Never been badly injured on the job,' yeah, right! I knew there was more to you faking your death!"

* * *

Bryce looked around Neal's apartment, which Peter had kindly taken him to. All Bryce had to do was ask to be dropped home. June's maids had been willing to guide him up to the apartment, after Bryce explained he had no idea where he keys went.

"Neal, what did you do?" he muttered under his breath as he took in the extravagance.

"Oh, Neal, let me see you." Bryce suppressed a flinch as a classy older woman touched his arms. She looked him up and down. "Good. You look alright. No guns or being kidnapped this time?" She smiled and Bryce smiled back, even though he was seething inside.

Kidnapped? Guns? Sure, he knew Neal was working with the FBI but he didn't think it would be that dangerous. The day's sting had been a straightforward one where the wall-street guy gave up without a fight, nothing worse than some of Neal's stories during his more questionable days.

But, kidnapping? Guns? Neal hated guns and when had he been kidnapped? And how many times to prompt a comment like that?

Thankfully, June left soon enough and Bryce hopped onto Neal's laptop to try and find out what he had Agent Burke had been doing.

* * *

Neal started when his phone went off.

"Hello?"

"Oh good. You kept my phone." The voice was dripping malice.

"Hello, Bryce. Got me shot yet?"

"Don't even start. I'm looking at your case files."

Neal cringed and almost bumped his knee against the vent wall.

"What was that?" Curse Bryce and his bat-like hearing.

"Nothing."

"You haven't been kidnapped or something, have you?"

"Or something," Neal muttered. "Even though I have your body, fingerprints checked out by the way, it is your body. Although I don't have two bullet scars in places which mean death either."

"Get on with it." He could hear the eye-roll.

"Well, since I'm you but not you, the General -being the lovely lady she is- decided to have me put into 'protective custody' until they sort this out or we go back. Whichever comes first."

"They lock you up in Castle's holding cell?"

"Yep."

"And you're currently escaping said holding cell?"

"Yep."

"Think this'll wear off in the morning?"

"Can only hope." Neal heard something in the distance. "Got to go, I think they've caught onto my escape."

Bryce hung up, wondering how Neal managed to get himself into such adventures.

* * *

Bryce curled up in the bed which was too big for him to sleep comfortably.

* * *

Neal slept on the Bartowski's couch. Something was poking him.

* * *

They tossed and turned.

* * *

Neal opened his eyes the next morning to find himself wrapped in luxurious sheets.

"Thank goodness," he muttered, rolling over and going back to sleep.

* * *

Bryce felt the couch before he opened his eyes.

"Yay," he muttered dully, seeing the familiar face of one Sarah Bartowski, nee Walker, staring down at him.

"Hey, that's my wife," Chuck joked, passing him a coffee which he gratefully accepted.

* * *

The only link they could find, other than Bryce and Neal being twins, was that they had both stayed in the same hotel chain with the same room number and on the same night. Bryce had room 094 in the California branch and Neal had room 094 in the New York Branch.

"Never staying there again," both of them agreed.


	22. LtH - Lights to Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From TouchoftheWind:  
>  _"I particularly liked these- the ones where Neal and Bryce de-aged are adorable! I also like the CC ones. Perhaps you could do one with Bryce and Neal being royals in the creature world or something..."_
> 
> Notes: I tried. My head goes 'keep it simple' while my muse goes 'ADDTHISTHISTHISANDTHIS!'. The war between the two made this a difficult piece. But I tried.
> 
> More notes:
> 
> Domovoi: a house spirit in Slavic folklore. [They] are masculine, typically small, bearded, and sometimes covered in hair all over. According to some traditions, domovye take on the appearance of current or former owners of the house and have a grey beard, sometimes with tails or little horns. (From Wikipedia).
> 
> Neal and Bryce were going to be Will o' Wisps (my personal favourite next to dragons – although dragons and Will o' Wisps have a relationship) however, I decided on calling them Auroras because of the Northern Lights and the gods/goddesses attributed to it (a bigger version of the Will o' Wisps) with the trickster properties attributed to the púca, or pwca.
> 
> Pwca: In Welsh folklore, it is said that the light [Will o' Wisp] is "fairy fire" held in the hand of a púca, or pwca, a small goblin-like fairy that mischievously leads lone travellers off the beaten path at night. (From Wikipedia).
> 
> Also for Will o' Wisps in fokelore: There are some tales told about the will-o'-the-wisp being guardians of treasure, much like the Irish leprechaun leading those brave enough to follow them to sure riches. Other stories tell of travelers getting lost in the woodland and coming upon a will-o'-the-wisp, and depending on how they treated the will-o'-the-wisp, the spirit would either get them lost further in the woods or guide them out. (Wikipedia again).

 

**LtH - Lights to Home**

* * *

Neal returned to his desk to see his mug filled with steaming coffee.

"No," he harshly whispered to the tiny creatures on his desktop. "Go away." He flicked his hands at them but they only scattered behind his pens and keyboard.

Their dark eyes remained on him as he sat down pretended they weren't there.

They vanished around lunchtime. Neal would be relieved, except he knew that it had nothing to do with his request. He knew when they came back it would be bad.

They did come back. An official looking letter appeared on his desk while he had been up in Peter's office.

He came back down and there it was, sitting on his keyboard like it wouldn't be ignored.

Neal cursed as he picked it up. He knew exactly what it was about.

The annual ball.

"I didn't go while I was in prison and I'm not going now," he hissed at the little puff things.

His computer beeped.

"Really? Your brother is going."

Neal banged his head against his desk as the image of the dark and wavy haired woman appeared on the screen. Her eyes were bright green and her red lips were turned to in a thin frown.

"Of course he is, Bryce is perfect," Neal muttered back, pressing the button to switch the monitor off.

"But you are the eldest, as dictated by the traditions of your people. You must make an appearance."

"An appearance where?" Peter's voice sounded above Neal's shoulder and Neal jolted back in shock, knocking into the FBI agent.

"Peter?"

"An appearance where?" Peter asked again.

"Neal is scheduled to make an appearance at our annual ball. If he does not, he will deal with me."

Scheduled? Neal's eyes narrowed at the woman, who was not actually a human woman but an electrical spirit assigned to watch over him. They had already decided his appearance, in an attempt to control him. Bryce was probably having the same problem.

"Is it within your radius?" Peter asked in his 'what are you up to?' tone.

"Doesn't matter, I'm not going," Neal informed him. He tapped a finger to the screen and the woman's face vanished. Peter gave him a suspicious look but decided to leave it alone.

For now.

* * *

Peter opened the space under the sink, frowned and cursed.

"Domovoi!" _Where was that wayward house spirit?_

The air around him seemed to flicker with the house spirit's laugh. Even El was laughing at him.

Peter wondered how this became his life. Dealing with a pesky house spirit who reminded him of his criminal CI all because of some mystical blood in his family. His father as a bricklayer was the lie his parents had told him.

In reality, they dealt with spirits and other creatures. By the time he was eighteen, Peter knew that having a dragon as a pet was a bad idea and always wore silver around his ankle where it couldn't be seen.

"What happened?" El asked, getting him a beer.

"Nothing happened," Peter responded. El pressed a finger to his forehead and tried to smooth out the unrelenting crease between his eyebrows.

"You only yell at our Domovoi like that when something happens with Neal. Let the man do his job and tell me what's bothering you."

"I get the feeling Neal's about to do something really stupid." Pause. "Let me rephrase that; something really, really stupid." El raised a questioning eyebrow. "I think he's dealing with Fey."

El went still and he was glad that she realised how bad this could get. He just wished he was wrong about what he saw earlier.

"Well," El said after a few moments, "I guess you'll have to try and help him. You've told me many stories about the Fey and how dangerous they can be."

Peter nodded but wondered if he could do it. An electrical spirit and a bunch of little critters around Neal were not good signs. They meant he was being watched.

* * *

Bryce didn't even hesitate before tossing the letter in the bin.

The beautiful thing about working for the CIA was that he could claim that he was busy and there was no way for them to check.

"Now that's just mean," a voice muttered as Kate the spirit appeared from the letter.

"Oh great," Bryce muttered. He pulled the letter back out and opened it. A piece from a plane wreak was inside.

Someone had sent his brother's dead girlfriend's ghost to bug him.

"Does Neal know?" he asked.

"Uh, no. Look, I didn't even know what Neal was until I died," Kate responded, frowning and pouting at him. "Besides, I'm here to deliver an invitation to the annual ball to you."

Bryce could feel the headache coming.

"No."

"No?"

"I'm not going. Tell them that."

"I can't." A shrug. "I'm bound to that thing in your hand." A heavy sigh.

"That can easily be fixed." If Bryce remembered correctly, Morgan did a short course in ghost hunting.

Then again, Morgan's answer to everything was salt. And he sometimes went to Lester and Jeff as they provided fire without question and were crazy about burning things.

Getting them involved might be overkill. Bryce decided to make it a last resort.

"Stay," he told the ghost before walking outside and making a call.

The call cut out as his phone overheated in his hand.

"Gremlins," Bryce sighed once he had pried open the back of the phone.

The Fey Realm was out to make his life miserable. Bryce wondered if he would be able to sneak out of the ball while everyone would no doubt be occupied with his brother.

* * *

Neal tugged at his suit with a frown on his face. Meanwhile, Bryce looked like he was being led to his funeral.

They had already told each other how they had been pressed into saying yes. Neal grumbled that the Fey Realm was getting sloppy as Peter had seen the electrical spirit when she appeared on his screen.

"She used the 'modern technology' excuse to justify her actions. Just because modern programs can allow for video calls, does not mean her to attempt to disguise herself as such is feasible. Mozzie would have seen through it in an instant. And I think Peter did."

"Peter did?" Bryce was surprised. "Isn't he FBI?"

"He gave me this." Neal held up a silver locket. "Told me to open it after the party, which I convinced him was at June's."

"Sounds odd," Bryce commented, wondering if there was something behind Peter giving Neal jewellery. Some kind of office bet, maybe?

"You ready for this?" Neal asked.

"I feel like I'm walking to my funereal," Bryce sighed.

* * *

"May I present, their Highnesses, the Twin Lightbringers!"

Elves, fairies, trolls, gnomes, spirits, and the odd human who had been taken and raised in the Fey Realm all clapped. The Twin Lightbringers were the first twins born into the Royal family of the Fey Realm, twin Auroras who could brought light to those who needed it and could enhance the dark of those who wanted it. They specialised in being seen but uncatchable.

Bryce danced with those who asked for a dance, be they young or old, male, female or something else. He plastered on smiles and grace.

Neal chatted with those who headed the Realm. He had advice and hope.

Time passed. The party did not dull or dim. No one left and the food did not run out.

Finally, Neal managed to wrestle a dance from Bryce; it was the only way to talk to him.

"We need to get out of here," Neal muttered. While he liked the life of glamour and bliss, he didn't want it to be stagnant and without excitement.

"Got a plan?" Bryce responded with a true smile. He was not made for the life of glamour and bliss, he wanted to be running around and unravelling webs of spies and deceit.

"It's really Peter's plan," Neal responded with a mischievous smirk. He took Bryce's hand and pressed it to the locket. Whatever was in the locket allowed Bryce to see a thin golden thread which seemed to lead out of the party, even though they couldn't perceive anything outside of the party.

"Huh. I like him," Bryce commented as they bolted. Neal threw up a hand, his powers instantly sending the room into darkness while the beings gathered glowed. They wouldn't be able to see the twins make their escape until the darkness was broken. Which wouldn't happen until Neal and Bryce were outside.

They burst out somewhere in Golden Gate park, dropping in relief onto the nearest park bench. The locket snapped open to reveal two strands of hair, Peter's and El's, a charm to bring Neal back to them.

"Fantastic," Bryce muttered, launching into a rant about how the charm worked and praising the FBI agent for thinking of using it.

"Geek," Neal muttered.

"Actually, I'd like him to keep going," Peter said, appearing behind him. "It's very interesting."

"How'd you know to use the charm?" Bryce asked.

"How'd you know how to make the charm," Neal added.

Peter raised an eyebrow and posed his own question;

"How are there two of you?" He held up a bag containing the outline of a six-pack of beer and a bottle of wine. "And how about we talk about this at June's?"


	23. HC2 – Twins Switch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From TouchoftheWind:  
>  _'Very good! Would love to see more body switching shenanigans!'_
> 
> Notes: Consider this an informal sequel to Hotel California (HC – chapter 21). It's happened, which is why Neal isn't freaking out and knows how to check whose body he's in but, no formal references are made.

**HC2 – Twins Switch**

* * *

Neal woke up in a cage. It wouldn't be that odd, he had been in worse situations with the FBI however, he didn't remember being on a case. Last thing he remembered was going to sleep on the Burke's couch.

"No," he whispered, shaking his head in denial. He didn't want to check but he had to be sure.

He pulled up his black sweater to reveal a scared body. The scar near his heart and the one on his belly were familiar… just they weren't his.

"Oh no," he groaned. He was in Bryce's body! Again! "Why does this always happen to me?" There was a grumble from down beside him. "Peter!"

"Neal?" One brown eye cracked open and looked around. "Where are we?"

"I don't know. All I know is, I'm in Bryce's body. Did you take a mission with the CIA behind my back or something?"

That had Peter shooting up. Neal showed him the scars. To his surprise, Peter unbuttoned his white shirt.

"What happened?" Neal gaped, seeing the nasty-looking scar in Peter's chest area.

"…I have no idea," Peter responded. He touched the scar and hissed a little. "But, I think I know someone who has a lot of explaining to do."

Neal tilted his head in a silent question. Peter smirked at him.

"You're not the only one with a supposably-dead spy twin."

"I wouldn't think that's something that's common," Neal deadpanned.

"Mine turned traitor years ago. Died a few years after that."

Neal winced in sympathy. Peter told him not to bother, that his brother was a bully.

"Yeah, but he still died."

"Or so I thought. Yet, here I am, in his obviously breathing body." Peter looked up from the scar to see Neal's eyes widen. "What?"

"If we're here, then where are Bryce and your twin?"

* * *

Kieran Ryker woke up in a clean bed, in a neat bedroom with a warm smell of comfort around him.

"Okay… not what I expected," he muttered as he looked around. Where was he?

He looked around and concluded that he was in his twin brother's body. Or this was some kind of simulation, taking what he knew about his brother's life and shoving him into a facsimile of it.

There was a cry from downstairs. A cry in a voice he recognised. With a sigh, Ryker decided he was in a simulation of some kind, because why else would Bryce Larkin be here, and went down to scold his new partner on decorum.

"Honestly, Larkin, stop being such a little baby," he grumbled as he plodded down the stairs. His brother's body, while toned and fit, was bulkier than his.

Larkin was sitting on a couch, being tended to a woman who Ryker recognised as his brother's wife, Elizabeth. He turned his blue eyes to him and they widened.

"Ryker?"

"What?"

Elizabeth looked between them, her face screaming that she didn't understand what was going on and was extremely worried. Ryker was impressed that she managed to keep it quiet and wasn't having a crying fit or break down while they tried to figure out what was going on.

"I don't suppose Peter told you about his twin?" Larkin said to her. Then he sheepishly added with a nod in Ryker's direction, "just like I didn't tell him about my twin."

"Your twin?" Ryker questioned, ignoring Elizabeth.

"Meet Neal Caffrey's body," Bryce said, pointing to himself. He then pulled up his pants leg to reveal a blinking anklet. "Convicted criminal working off his sentence with the FBI."

"Oh joy," Ryker grumbled. "Okay. So if we're here, they must be in our bodies." Bryce's eyes widened. "What?"

"Last I remember, we had been knocked out with tasers."

"Hm, that means Peter and Neal have taken our place in the compound and are probably being tortured for information as we speak."

"Tortured!" Elizabeth repeated in shock. "You have to help them!"

"Don't have to," Ryker pointed out.

"If they die, then what happens to you if you switch back?" she questioned defiantly. Ryker was reluctantly impressed. He had been planning to go and save his twin for that very reason but couldn't resist testing his brother's wife's reactions.

She was smart. That was good.

"I'm going to change into something suit-like," he said, heading back up the stairs.

* * *

Bryce looked from El to Ryker.

"So, any ideas?" he asked.

"We could try to get Peter's team to help us," El suggested.

"Will they be able to help?" Ryker asked, "we are going to be breaking into a guarded compound masquerading as a medical facility."

"I could ask," El said, pulling out her phone and dialling Diana. "Hey, sorry to bother you but we have a situation here. Do you think you can come here?"

* * *

Diana took one look at the situation and called Jones.

"So, that's not Peter," Jones stated dumbly, pointing towards Ryker. He moved to point to Bryce. "And that's not Neal."

"It becomes obvious when they open their mouths," Diana said.

"Don't insult us. Because, unless you are able to walk into a place without a warrant, then you are of no use to us," Ryker pointed out. "The only reason I called you is because  _Larkin_  thinks you might have something to add to the discussion before he and I break in."

"And we also wanted to know where Peter keeps the key to Neal's anklet," Bryce added, "since the tracker poses an issue when we don't want to leave a trace."

Jones blinked.

"Are they serious?" he asked Diana and El, who nodded.

"I did explain on the phone."

Jones shook his head, muttered about how this was crazy and then asked where they were planning to break in.

They mentioned the place and gave an address.

"Oh, I know a guy who can get us in," Jones said, to Ryker's and Bryce's surprise.

"Who and where?" Ryker demanded to know.

"Just a guy I knew from my days at the Naval Academy. I'll give him a call."

* * *

Peter grabbed the guard by the neck and applied enough pressure to his throat to knock him out. Not pleasant but he knew it was gentler than what his brother would have done.

It had taken them only a few minutes to figure out how to break out of the cage, thanks to Neal's escape artistry. Now they were looking to escape the building they were in.

"Okay, I bet if we go this way, we can get out. Or something," Neal muttered, looking down the hallway. Peter grabbed him as he moved.

"This way," he said, pointing in the other direction.

"What makes you say that?"

"My gut."

"Well, I'm not one to bet against the gut."

* * *

There was a crash. Peter and Neal exchanged a look before running towards it. When they found the location, there was Jones holding a gun out while Bryce and Ryker took down whomever came near them.

"Are those… ninjas?" Neal questioned in surprised. The black outfits and whole face masks certainly gave that impression.

"Come on," Peter said. He pointed up towards the man watching from up the stairs. "That's probably the guy in charge."

"Most definitely," Diana said, sneaking up behind him. "Going after him, Boss? Count me in."

"Um… you know?" Neal questioned.

"For spies, they're not very subtle," Diana shrugged, looking towards Bryce and Ryker in Neal and Peter's bodies.

"I had better get my body back in one piece," Neal sighed as Bryce took a hit to the arm and rammed the guy's face into the ground.

* * *

Diana took down the boss, although Ryker and Larkin were going to get the credit, since the FBI wasn't officially there.

They retired outside as they tried to figure out what had happened between the sets of twins. But before that;

"What the-?" Ryker gasped as he took a solid hit to his face. "This is your body!"

"The pain is yours," Peter growled back. "And you're supposed to be dead!"

"Is that what this is about? Hey, I got stabbed! Most people would die from that but no, the CIA has experimental medical procedures they want to test. What was I supposed to tell you?"

"You could have sent a postcard! A letter! Any sign that you had survived!"

"What's the point? If it wasn't for this, we wouldn't have seen each other! It wouldn't have changed anything even if I had contacted you."

* * *

"Why aren't you helping him out?" Neal asked Bryce as they watched Peter and Ryker argue.

"He died because he made an attempt on Sarah's life. Serves him right," Bryce responded.

"It's not because we did the same thing when I found out you were alive, minus the body switching, and you want him to suffer like you did?"

"'Course not!"

Neal gave him a smile, one which said he didn't believe Bryce's words.

* * *

Diana and Jones looked up from their work as Peter and Neal walked in. It was just Peter and Neal, which begged the question of where Bryce and Ryker were.

"Donno," Peter grunted and took a sip of his coffee so he wouldn't have to say any more.

"We woke up in our own bodies," and Neal's expression was relieved, "and they were gone."

"Dang. I liked them," Diana commented.

"That's only because they don't know that picking a fight with us is a bad idea," Jones mused. "We're FBI agents and proud of it."

"And Boss, nice shiner," Diana snickered.

Peter frowned and went up to his office, lightly touching the bruise on his cheek and wincing at the spark of pain.

* * *

"I hate paperwork," Bryce sighed as he looked over the processing papers for their bad guy.

"Think about debriefing. How do we explain ending up in our twins' bodies?" Ryker pointed out. "And if we leave that out, then we have to explain how the FBI knew we were in trouble and why they came to save us."

Bryce groaned and buried his head in his arms.

"If we detour to Burbank, do you think something big'll happen and they'll completely forget about this mission?"

"No. I'm not giving your ex-girlfriend a chance to knife me again." Ryker placed a pen in front of Bryce. "Now start writing."


	24. DPL - Doppelganger

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From Spiral Hearts:  
>  _"You should do one where Neal and Bryce are Dopplegangers. Or maybe they could be like gusrdians or whatever sent down to protect Chuck and the Bartowski's (or just Chuck) for whatever reason."_

**DPL - Doppelganger**

* * *

Bryce opened his eyes to see… himself. Or, not really himself.

"You again," he sighed, head lolling to the side. The apparition smiled at him and tilted its head.

"Well, can't let you die, huh?" it said.

Bryce groaned and tried to sit up. Pain jolted through his stomach. He looked down to see a badly done patch job and to hear sirens in the distance. Memories of the Intersect room came back. He had been shot and must have passed out.

He left Chuck's team surrounded by Ring agents!

"No! Don't move, you'll bleed out!" the apparition said, trying to hold him down.

"Chuck," Bryce groaned.

"He downloaded the Intersect, he's fine!"

"Why are you worried about me? Aren't doppelgangers supposed to foretell misfortune and death?"

The apparition jolted back.

"I don't like death. Why would I let you die?"

Bryce laughed, even though it hurt. He was going crazy, wasn't he?

"Over here!" the doppelganger cried out, waving his hands in the air. People bellowed responses and Bryce passed out.

* * *

Bryce opened his eyes to see… Chuck. Sitting on the chair next to his hospital bed.

"You're awake!" Chuck gasped, jumping to his feet. He turned to someone Bryce couldn't see and said, "he's awake!"

A familiar voice said, "told you he'd be okay."

Bryce blinked. He looked beyond Chuck to see to his doppelganger standing nearby.

"Oh! Right, this is Neal," Chuck informed him, pulling the doppelganger closer. "I named him. He's, well, I'm not really sure what he is."

"Neither am I," Neal responded. "Normally I'm gone by now."

"Great," Bryce said tonelessly. In his experience, anything outside of 'normal' was trouble.

"None of the others have seen him, aside from the crew who first picked you up," Chuck explained. "Seems like he only appears when I'm around."

"I told you, I protect you," Neal said to Chuck.

"How do you know that's your job?" Bryce asked, glaring at his double. Neal thought about it for a moment before shrugging. "Why did you save me then?"

"There are many ways to protect someone. And you're important to Chuck," Neal responded.

"Why do you look like me?" Bryce asked and Neal shrugged again.

"Cool though, right?" Chuck said with a wide grin.

"You're crazy," Bryce muttered.

"I think I'm pretty cool," Neal said. "And if you tried to explain this to anyone else, they would call you the crazy one."

"Yay," Bryce muttered sarcastically before nodding off again. Maybe if he slept, the apparition, Neal, would go away.

* * *

"This is a bad idea," Neal muttered as Bryce packed his bag.

"Thank you for telling me something I already know," Bryce responded in an annoyed tone. It wasn't as if this was chance. Someone had contacted him, someone using Orion's codes. Bryce had to check this out.

Of course, as soon as he read the message, Neal appeared again. He hadn't seen the doppelganger since Chuck had downloaded the Intersect 2.0.

Since then, Orion had died. Bryce had been assigned mission after mission, keeping him away from Chuck and the group.

"You should tell Chuck."

"If you were in my position, would you tell him?" Bryce questioned. Neal's silence was all the answer he needed. "Thought so."

"Where's the signal coming from?" Neal asked.

"New York." Bryce turned around when Neal went quiet. "What's wrong?"

Neal looked up at him, blue eyes bright in an innocent way Bryce couldn't manage. If anything, it reminded Bryce of Chuck.

"I will do it," he said. When Bryce questioned what, Neal didn't explain. He just covered Bryce's hand with his. "I will search for the source of the signal. And you won't remember it."

Then he was gone. Bryce's bag was gone.

Bryce was left wondering why he was out of bed.

* * *

The doppelganger somehow became Neal Caffrey. A past was generated; labelling him a thief and rogue, perhaps an unconscious comparison to how Bryce was considered a traitor for a while.

Neal found his way to the FBI, navigating the memories of his generated past and the blurry recollections of Bryce. He searched for whomever sent out the signal in his spare time.

* * *

The FBI raided a warehouse using intel provided by Neal. Neal was with Peter as they bashed down the door, finding forged IDs and a group of people who were trained killers. They were arrested. Jones was injured but managed to take down three of the men before he went down.

No one died.

Neal was focused on the small room above the concrete floor. It oversaw everything or would if it had windows. He walked towards it, something pulling him there.

"What do you mean 'this is what we're here for'?" Peter questioned as Neal picked the lock. Inside, they found a man with a wild, yet controlled look in his eye and a shaggy beard.

"Bryce?" he questioned when he spotted Neal. Then he consulted some of his equipment and reassessed. "No. Who are you?"

"Your son, he named me Neal," Neal explained. "I came instead of Bryce. I couldn't let him get hurt."

"I see," Stephen mused.

The FBI found the whole exchange a little strange, even more so when Neal vanished.

"Where'd he go?" Blake questioned, looking around.

"I imagine to inform Chuck about me," Stephen said. "My name is Stephen Bartowski."

"Uh… nice to meet you?" Peter said, confused.

* * *

Chuck flinched when Neal appeared on the other side of the counter.

"Don't do that!" he gasped, holding a hand to his hammering heart. Neal looked around and smiled softly.

"You know you're the only one who can see me right now, right?"

"So? You still appeared from nowhere, like a ghost."

"Speaking of ghosts," Neal said, "your father is alive and well in New York. An FBI team just located him."

Chuck's jaw dropped open. His father was supposed to be dead.

"New York?"

"Captured by a splinter group, I believe," Neal explained. "He managed to send a distress signal to Bryce and don't get mad at Bryce, he doesn't remember receiving the signal. Sorry about taking so long to save him."

"Uh… no. You saved him. When I wasn't even aware he was alive."

Neal nodded and told Chuck to expect a call from the FBI before he vanished again.

* * *

Bryce was surprised when Chuck told him. The store's security cameras hadn't picked anything up beyond Chuck talking to himself.

"You really saw Neal?" They hadn't seen Neal since the hospital after he had been shot in the Intersect room. Now, years later, Chuck had brought him in because he had seen Neal.

Chuck nodded.

"And he told you that your father is alive?"

"That's right. I did receive that phone call by the way. Would you come with me?"

Bryce thought about it for a moment. He had to admit, one of the reasons he had stayed away from Chuck was that he was afraid the apparition would appear again. It was creepy, seeing another one of himself.

But, it was Chuck and Orion.

"Fine."

* * *

Neal was jumpy. Everyone ignored his little disappearance when they rescued Stephen Bartowski because there had been no way to explain it.

It made sense when another Neal and someone who looked like the description of Chuck Stephen had given them walked into the bullpen.

"I feel like I should apologise," Neal said, bowing under their gazes like a child in trouble.

"I liked the quiet," Bryce commented and Chuck elbowed him in the arm.

"Are you kidding me?" Chuck said to Neal. "You found my dad. I should be apologising to you for not realising and letting you do this alone."

Neal looked surprised at that and then he tensed up as Chuck hugged him and thanked him.

Neal vanished, leaving Chuck to collapse as his support disappeared. He reappeared behind Bryce.

"Remind me again why I protect this family?" Neal whispered into Bryce's ear.

Bryce laughed and responded that he'd get back to the doppelganger when he had an answer because he didn't know why he did it either.


	25. NRL - Not Really Librarians

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From TouchoftheWind, on AO3;
> 
> The new TNT show The Librarians has the premise that there is a Library which keeps safe magical artifacts and lost knowledge- and there is a Librarian who goes on adventures and finds these items but is also a genius and tends to be eccentric- can i have Bryce and Neal as the Librarian running into the FBI and CIA and insisting they know whats going on as they are The Librarian...and then proceed to save the day...
> 
> Notes: I've only seen pieces of this show. Tiny pieces. It did not have a good time slot in my area, despite how I wanted to see it. So, I'm not going with specifics to the show but a sort of adaptation of the ideas in the prompt.
> 
> Important Notes: Please, do not leave prompts in your review/comments.

**NRL - Not Really Librarians**

* * *

"You're Neal Caffrey!" Diana cried out, pulling out her gun.

"That I am." Neal smirked at them and lent back on his heels, looking quite comfortable with the gun pointed at him. Of course, he knew she wouldn't shoot without her Boss' orders or if he was aggressive.

Neal turned to Peter, who looked shocked to run into one of the FBI's most wanted here.

"What are you doing here, Caffrey?"

Neal blinked, putting on a shocked façade.

" _What am I doing here?_  My job." He noted the surprised widening of eyes and pursing of lips and added, "yes, I'm here for a painting. Maybe you've heard of it? ' _Temps Perdu'_  by Vincent Lefévre, the artist who vanished into obscurity after painting only a single masterpiece?"

"Caffrey, we won't let you steal that painting," Peter informed him. All the agents were a little shocked that Neal Caffrey was explaining his target to them. This had never happened before.

"Neal, stop teasing the FBI agents." Guns clocked as Peter and half the agents turned to face the man who just walked in. He looked like Neal but was dressed down. Instead of a nice white shirt and slacks, he was wearing a black turtleneck and jeans.

There was also a gun holstered under his arm.

"Bryce Larkin," he introduced himself. "Federal agent. Although I can't show you my badge right now since I'm not here for them."

"Does your agency know you spend your off hours assisting known criminals?" Diana asked him.

Bryce thought about it for a moment and shrugged. He really had no idea if the CIA knew about his other job. Even if they did, they were unlikely to pull him off it since the government liked to claim these things didn't exist.

"Look, do you realise what's going on?" Bryce asked, giving everyone in the room a pointed look. Neal looked around and then sighed.

"We're caught, aren't we?"

"What?" Peter questioned, looking from twin to twin.

"' _Temps Perdu'_ is more than a painting, Agent," Bryce explained, "it's a place."

"Are you saying we're trapped in the painting?" Jones questioned in disbelief.

"Yes and no," Neal answered, causing heads to swivel around. "Bryce is really bad at explaining." Bryce glared at him. "At this point, we need to find the painting, which should be on that wall there," Neal pointed behind him, "except, as you can clearly see, that's the entrance to the toilet."

Diana lowered her gun.

"That is a strange place to put a toilet," she mused.

"Your best chance of getting out of here is us," Bryce stated simply.

* * *

Unsurprisingly, the FBI didn't believe them. Neal submitted to being cuffed and led out of the building. Bryce trailed behind.

"Where's the exit?" Jones questioned after fifteen minutes of walking around.

"That way," Peter said, pointing at a door which should have led to the exit. Under the power of the painting, it didn't. They walked through it and ended up in the hall where sculptures were being displayed.

"Now will you listen to us, Agent Burke?" Neal asked softly. Peter sighed and nodded.

"As long as I don't have to uncuff you," he responded.

"Already done." Neal flicked the handcuffs off and twirled them around his hand.

Peter sighed and shook his head. That was not what he meant.

* * *

Jones summed up their situation nicely, "so this painting is warping reality or something, keeping us from the exit until we find it. And you two are something called 'Librarians' who aren't librarians but people who deal with this stuff so we don't have to?"

"Close enough," Neal said with a shrug.

"So, how do we find this painting?" Diana asked.

"That's supposed to be Neal's area of expertise," Bryce explained.

"Hey, my plan was to find the painting using the cameras," Neal pointed out, "but someone activated it before we could get to the security room."

"Who would do that?" Jones asked.

The twins exchanged a look and then shrugged in unison.

"Does it matter?" Diana asked.

"With these things, it helps to know how they start. Usually that helps us figure out how to end them," Bryce explained.

They had no idea how this one started and neither did the FBI agents. Neal sighed. He had a long job ahead of him.

* * *

They didn't manage to track down the painting. They did locate the door and manage to leave the building.

The painting was reported as stolen since it went missing.

Bryce happened to mention to Peter that while he couldn't get Neal for the cons and art thefts, he could possibly get him on some kind of forgery. Like forgery of bonds.

Peter appreciated the hint while Neal was annoyed and claimed he wanted Peter to figure it out.

* * *

It was years later that the painting suddenly resurfaced. The museum was shocked as the painting appeared in the exact spot it had been in before it had been 'stolen'.

The new members of White Collar had been surprised to see a Neal twin walk through the door but had been even more surprised by the way Peter sighed, Diana smirked and Jones greeted him as if they weren't talking to someone who looked exactly like Neal while Neal rummaged in his desk and tried to look busy.

* * *

"This time, we'll get to the security room," Neal said with Peter with a confident smile. It reminded Peter of why he preferred it when Neal didn't remind him of his 'other job'.

"It's bad enough that I had to deal with this once," he sighed.

"Get over it, Peter," Neal responded, "I do this every week."

"And I cover for you at the FBI with Bancroft's help," Peter responded with a glare. While Bancroft did offer his assistance and Peter understood why Neal had to be out there, it still felt like putting his job on the line.

"Is that Neal Caffrey?"

Peter and Neal turned to see the barrel of a gun being pointed at Neal. Neal flinched and put his hands up in a 'no weapons' stance.

Peter, Neal and Bryce were face to face with Casey, Sarah and Chuck.

"Casey," Bryce muttered in annoyance.

"Larkin." Casey nodded at Neal. "Twitchy Larkin."

"You have a gun to my face," Neal reminded him, "I'm free to be as twitchy as I like."

"Until I shoot you."

"Nobody's shooting anybody," Chuck ordered, pressed Casey's hand and the gun down towards the ground. "Bryce, you're alive."

Bryce nervously laughed, "yeah, I guess I am. You can thank my second job for that."

Realisation appeared Sarah's face.

"You're the Librarians we were order to find and protect," she said.

"That's correct," Neal said.

"Ordered?" Bryce sighed to no one in particular, "really? Thanks a lot, General."

"They're not criminals?" Peter asked.

"They're agents," Neal informed him and Peter nodded, consenting to their presence.

The group tracked down the painting with Neal's strategy and Chuck's assistance. Chuck managed to override the security to get them into the room and then use the cameras to get them to the painting.

"So, now what?" Peter asked as he looked at the painting.

Bryce reached up and pulled it off the wall. Neal gasped and moved to stop him then paused when no alarms sounded.

"Huh, that was easy," Sarah commented.

"Don't jinx it," Bryce responded.

"We're stealing the painting?" Peter questioned in shock.

"Chuck will hack in and make it so the painting's 'out for restoration'-"

"Which it kind of is," Neal interrupted Bryce, "since Bryce will take it back and the other Librarians will have a look at it, try and stop this 'mojo' from happening in the future and bring it back."

Peter frowned but relented to the 'theft'.

"As long as you bring it back," he commented, "or I'll send Sara after you."

Neal grumbled in response.

"Who's 'Sara'?" Bryce questioned, interested. He could tell they weren't talking about Chuck's Sarah.

"None of your business," Neal responded.


	26. LtH2 – Aftermath

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From Excalibur. vs. Riptide on Fanfiction.net:
> 
> _Oh my god, this story is awesome! Can you do a continuation of this chapter? It would be funny to see Peter find out that Neal is fey._
> 
> Extra notes (from guest):  
>  _A clifhanger you need to stop with these. the show killed me enough by ending. I would love to see some more of the boys here. Peters reaction to the two was perfect. And I think we need Elizabeths. We also need to have them crowned king together. If they are princes. Then about then finding wifes. And all the things kings do. And yes I am thinking of a full story but have no writing skills._
> 
> Notes: There was little editing done of this chapter.

**LtH2 – Aftermath**

* * *

Peter had not been expecting Neal to appear in Golden Gate Park but that's where his tracker went back online. The alarms went off and Peter assured the Marshalls that it was just a mistake. They believed him because it was impossible for someone to go from New York to San Francisco in an instant.

Well, it would normally be impossible. But Peter wasn't normal and what Neal was dealing with wasn't normal.

Peter was just glad Neal figured out how to use the charm he gave him. A tie to Peter and his wife to help lead him out of the other realms.

"Alright, let's bring him home," Peter said to the air. "Domovoi!"

The creature appeared a moment later. He had been waiting Peter's call. Standing less than half of Peter's height, he looked just like a small version of Peter. Although, he possessed the beard and shaggy hair his kind were partial to.

"Did you find one?"

The Domovoi nodded and then vanished into the shadows as another creature appeared. This one gave off a large impression, yet still managed to somehow fit in Neal's apartment without knocking anything over. It looked like a sleek black horse however, its luminescent golden eyes betrayed its real nature.

"I need your help to bring back my friend," Peter said. He held up a locket. It was similar to Neal's, although it contained a piece of Neal's hair and not Peter's and El's. "I also offer you a gift." He pulled a bottle of alcohol out of a bag. A six-pack of beer and another bottle of wine were left in the bag.

The púca stared at the offering for a moment. It snorted and huffed.

"I will assist you," it responded, "get on my back."

Peter nodded and climbed on. He thought he was ready but there really was no way to prepare for the storm that was riding a púca. This one bucked and neighed and rumbled and it galloped towards the balcony doors.

The doors opened for it in a gust of wind and the púca leapt.

"Oomph," Peter grunted as he fell and hit the ground. Grass crumbled under his body as he rolled and he was lucky the bottles he was carrying didn't smash.

Peter stood up and looked around. He wasn't in New York, he knew that. The air was different. He could hear Neal's voice.

Talking about how clever he was to give Neal the charm.

* * *

Peter walked towards the voice, legs a little wobbly after the rush of the púca ride. He was surprised to see two Neals sitting on a bench instead of one. But, he figured there would be answers eventually.

"Geek." Ah, that one must be his Neal.

"Actually, I'd like him to keep going," Peter said from behind them. They jumped in surprise as they both turned in one motion to look at him. "It's very interesting."

"How'd you know to use the charm?" the not-Neal asked. Although Peter wasn't sure if he was asking him or Neal.

"How'd you know how to make the charm?" Neal added. They were both asking him then.

He raised an eyebrow and added his own question.

"How are there two of you? And how about we talk about this at June's?" Although, he wasn't certain they could all get a púca ride back to June's.

"That'd be great," Neal said. Then he looked around. "But how do we get to June's?"

"I'll do it," not-Neal said, throwing his arms in the air. Fog appeared from nowhere and enveloped them.

"Hold on to me," Neal said, just a voice in the fog as his cold hand wrapped around Peter's wrist. Peter couldn't see anything aside from light bouncing around the way it does on steam.

"Almost there," not-Neal commented, sounding like he was far away. Then the fog rained to the ground and faded away, revealing Neal's apartment.

"Well, that was an easy," Peter commented. Beat a púca ride, hands down.

* * *

The not-Neal introduced himself as Bryce.

"Um… so you noticed?" Neal questioned shyly and Peter was more baffled by the sudden shyness than the twin.

"What? That you seemed to have angered the Fey? Yeah, I noticed." The twins shared a look and Peter sighed as he realised, "what did I miss? I know the Fey were watching you."

"Yeah, because he's next in line for the throne," Bryce quipped. Neal glared at him in response because they both knew he didn't want the title. The problem was that Bryce didn't want it either.

"We're actually Fey. They call us the Twin Lightbringers because we're Auroras," Bryce explained.

"And the Auroras are generally the overseers of the other realms, something neither of us really want to do," Neal grumbled.

"So, we kind of run around the mortal realms," Bryce added, "causing trouble here and there, or so we're told." Peter nodded. He could believe that. Neal either was trouble or attracted trouble; if it wasn't one, it was the other.

"Thankfully, we can do that as princes and not the actually rulers. But, we've still got some duties. The only issue with that is, they intend to keep us from 'gallivanting around the mortal realms like travellers'. I don't see what's wrong with travellers. Our cousins, the púca are travellers." Neal shrugged at the end to show his confusion.

"I'm aware," Peter responded with a smile, wondering when they would realise.

"At least we weren't gone as long as last time, Mozzie thought the FBI had locked me away in a secret prison or something," Neal rambled while Bryce had a thoughtful expression.

Peter realised that was where Neal had vanished to in the middle of his crime spree. He had thought Neal had gone underground.

"How come you're not surprised?" Bryce asked. "Usually, people are horrified or shocked or have some form of disbelief or denial. I would put you in the disbelief and denial column but you made Neal the charm which got us home."

Realisation crossed Neal's face.

"How did you get to Golden Gate Park?" he questioned.

Peter smiled.

"My dad's a storyteller," he said. Storytellers were humans who dealt with spirits and Fey and the main trade for doing that was stories. Fey loved a good story. You either told one or became part of one. Tools of the trade, like spells and charms, were powerful in a storyteller's hands as they spun the words which built the world.

Neal gasped and his eyes grew wide while Bryce's mouth dropped open.

"And I inherited some of his skill," Peter added.

"An FBI storyteller," Bryce mused in bafflement, "a white collar crimes FBI storyteller… It's right in front of me and I still don't believe it."

"Hey. You can deal in stories while working with facts. The best stories have some grain of truth in them," Peter countered.

"You mean the best lies," Neal countered, although his voice wasn't as strong as usual. He was still shocked. He had investigated Peter, led him on a cat-and-dog chase for years and worked with him and had not even the slightest hint that Peter knew anything about Fey.

"And why do you think I always see through yours?" Peter responded.

Neal was rather glad he didn't lie to Peter now that he knew the FBI agent was part-storyteller.

* * *

El smiled and hummed in the kitchen, fairies fluttering around her and bubbles of light bouncing through the room. The lights came from Neal, at her request to see some of what he could do. Neal had been surprised when the fairies seemed to fly in from everywhere to check out his lights.

"How many Fey reside in your home?" he asked Peter. Peter was staring at his wife. "Peter!"

"What?" he questioned, snapping out of it. Neal repeated the question. "Inside? There's a Domovoi and an electrical spirit. I once tried to get rid of the spirit but El made me apologise and bring it back when her computer broke down one evening. She likes the convenience of having something around to fix electrical appliances when they break down and keep everything running smoothly."

"And outside?"

"It's like a city," Peter responded with a shake of his head. "I don't even tell good stories but they still all flock here like it's a," he waved his hands in the air as he searched for the words. "A fashion week or something."

Neal smiled at the reminder of how Peter dislikes fashion week; it was all in his tone. Or rather, how Peter dislikes the inability to get a taxi unless you're a model or Neal Caffrey.

"Oh. Hun," El said in her 'you're a dense man sometimes but I love you' tone. "You tell all these good stories about Neal and what you do at work, of course they'd come here."

Peter gave her a confused look.

"Those aren't good stories."

"That's a matter of opinion," Neal quickly countered. He turned to El and questioned, "he tells stories about me?"

"I'm titling the next story, 'can I trade Neal for Bryce?'" Peter grumbled jokingly. A few more meetings with Bryce and he would prefer Neal over his CIA agent, Lightbringer twin.

* * *

They were in a meeting when all the computers flickered.

"What?" Jones questioned, immediately trying to figure out the problem. Peter glanced at Neal, silently asking if there was anything he needed to know. Like if the Fey were once again after their prince.

The screens all died at the same time, binary numbers filling the screen.

"Piranha!" Jones declared in a panicked but excited tone.

"Piranha?" Neal questioned.

"A hacker," Diana explained. "He's a legend but very rarely does anything so it's difficult to say if he's real or not."

"They say no firewall can keep him out," Jones said.

**"Sorry to say, I'm not the Piranha. But I will tell him about that. I'm sure he'll love it."**

"Oh no," Neal groaned banging his head on the table as an image formed. It looked a lot like Neal, if Neal grew his hair out just a little more.

"Bryce?" Peter questioned, surprised that Neal's twin would call them during a meeting.

**"Agent Burke. I need to speak to Neal. It's important."**

"Important enough to hack our computers, which is a crime, might I add?"

**"Yes."**

"I doubt it," Neal grumbled.

 **"They're trying to marry me off!"** Bryce informed them frantically.

Neal's head shot up. Peter sighed. He didn't need to ask who 'they' were. It was obvious that someone in the other realms thought it time the princes got princesses or something like that.

 **"Come downstairs, now!"** Bryce ordered. The computers shut off and rebooted.

"You better go," Peter said. Neal lethargically slipped out of his seat and out of the meeting room.

* * *

"I'm sorry,  _who_  are they trying to marry you off to?" Neal growled in anger. Whether that anger would be directed at Bryce or the other realms depended on Bryce's explanation.

"Kate," Bryce responded, "apparently, they think one twin is as good as the other. Neal, I'm not marrying a ghost!"

"Or my ex-girlfriend!" Neal reminded him. "Who I didn't even know was a ghost! You need to tell me these things, Bryce!"

"I'm telling you now! So, how do I get them to drop this whole issue?"

"I could marry her," Neal suggested lightly. Bryce's expression went flat. He felt that Kate had played with his brother's affections in life and had no intention of letting her do that in death.

"You know what? I think I'm going to go to Agent Burke. He's a storyteller, he'll help us solve this."

Upstairs, Peter had a sudden foreboding feeling.


	27. SGC1 - Secret Government Clones 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Another one of my own. Neal and Bryce were part of CIA cloning experiments. I have a second part planned for this and there's a possibility of a third part. This first part is about Neal and Bryce as children. There will probably be timeline issues.

**SGC1 - Secret Government Clones 1**

* * *

Neal's beginnings were a lot pain. Growing quickly hurt. It hurt more when he was freed from his tube and gravity finally took hold. He could barely move, barely talk and was surrounded by men in lab coats who were holding sharp things which looked painful.

He had the appearance of a five year old. When he struggled, he ended up breaking the containment unit next to him.

Eleven minutes after Neal was released, Bryce was released too. There was no point keeping in him a damaged containment unit. They were released close enough that they were considered twins. They could both be used to keep the other under control. Neal was calmer around Bryce and Bryce was protective of Neal.

It made for an interesting experiment. However, when they appeared around age nine, the boys managed to escape the lab which had been their home into the facility beyond it. At that time, another group was visiting.

The facility had a state-of-the-art power source, something Stephen Bartowski was interested in using for his Intersect projects. He was walking around when he spotted a child in the distance.

The child ducked into a room. Stephen followed it to find an empty room. He was used to this as Chuck sometimes liked hiding. Or just squeezing into small spaces to prove he could fit, Eleanor often giving him a 'dare' to try it.

First he closed the door. Then he searched at ground level. There was no sign of the child underneath the tables.

"Hello?" he called out. "I promise not to hurt you."

There was a sink with a couple of cabinet doors underneath. That's where he moved next. He opened the first one.

"Rawr!"

And was promptly attacked by a small, dark haired child which bit him.

"Ow," he winced as he picked the child up by its waist. "That's not nice."

"Put Bryce down!" an identical child ordered, popping out of cabinet he had been about to open. The child began pulling at the arm holding Bryce.

"I don't mean you or your brother any harm," Stephen informed them as he put Bryce on the ground. He kept a good grip around Bryce's shirt though. He didn't want these two running away. "Where did you come from?"

"Come from?" Bryce questioned in a softer voice than his brother.

"We live here," the other one said with a glare.

"You... live here?" 'Here' was a covert CIA base. It wasn't a place for children. A bad feeling curdled in Stephen's gut. His gut told him why these children were here.

"That's what I said," the other one responded. "You're not very smart, are you?"

"Neal!" Bryce said in a scandalised tone.

"What?" Neal responded with hands on his hips. Stephen couldn't help a smile at the obvious imitation of someone the children probably knew. "We said it and he didn't get it. That's stupid."

"Not necessarily," Stephen said. He then explained all the factors which would contribute to him not hearing them. Then he spoke about how to ensure someone was listening finishing off with, "it's actually more unlikely that someone will miss what you're saying if you don't take steps to be heard."

Bryce was almost dozing up against the wall as Neal listened and bounced on his feet.

"Are you a scientist, mister?" Neal asked.

"Not exactly," Stephen responded. "I'm something called an engineer. My name's Stephen Bartowski."

"I'm Neal! That's Bryce! We're somethings called 'experimental agent clones'."

"We're supposed to grow up to help people," Bryce said quietly. He didn't sound too certain about that. "That's why they hurt us."

Stephen nodded and moved to sit on the ground. He knew he would be stiff when he stood up but this was important.

"Tell me more about yourselves," he said. The boys shared a look before excitedly explaining everything about themselves. It was rather cute, how eager they were to tell him everything. However, it also said how little they were listened to in their day-to-day lives.

What they spoke about was years of studying, testing and experimentation. Neal described some of the tests as 'not very fun'.

Stephen would have described them as torture. The children were often locked up in the dark. They didn't seem to know what 'food' was but they did 'ingest' sloppy grey stuff every day. Their faces spoke of how much they didn't like the food.

Stephen checked their arms and found signs of needle marks. It was then he made his decision.

"Would you like to come with me?" he asked. They had explained how they managed to escape their usual room and how they first thought Stephen had found them in order to take them back.

"Is that possible?" Neal asked.

Stephen nodded. He was going to get these kids out of here, no matter who he was going to cross. It was amazing that they were open and caring, despite how they had been treated.

* * *

"I don't think you understand. I'm taking them. This is not asking permission. This is informing you of the travesty of human rights you have created here. Created in a lab or not, they are children."

"Orion..." a sigh. "You are right. I admit, we didn't know the extent of the experiment until today. We were told the cloning had been successful and that they were moving into long term testing. We were not told that two children had been created. Just... realise how many enemies you have probably made today and be careful."

* * *

Neal and Bryce were surprised to see a city. Most of their external training had taken place in abandoned or isolated places and involved running and fighting people who wanted to hurt them while trying to locate the person who brought them there to end it and go home.

Mister Stephen had explained that they weren't going back but they found that hard to believe. They would always return, which would be followed by tests and things injected into them which hurt.

The car stopped outside a building taller than they could see.

"Wow! Is this a castle?" Bryce asked Mister Stephen as they followed him out.

"It's an apartment building," Mister Stephen explained. "A friend of mine lives here. She's going to look after you."

Bryce wowed and ran up the stairs, looking at everything. He tried the door and frowned when it didn't move.

"Don't we have clearance to go in here?" he questioned, trying to find the spot where the cards would be swiped.

Neal was interested in the street and the people walking around. They were all different and he couldn't help wondering if he and Bryce were strange because they looked the same. Mister Stephen took his hand and pulled him along.

"I need to press this and let her know we're here," he explained, pushing a button.

Neal silently followed Mister Stephen and Bryce into the building. They went in an elevator.

"It smells," Bryce commented, crinkling his nose.

The doors of the elevator opened to a hallway of doors. Somehow, Mister Stephen knew exactly which one to stop in front of.

He knocked.

A lady answered. She smelt of something warm and sweet.

"Boys, this is your Aunt Ellen."

"Really, Stephen?" Aunt Ellen questioned with a wry smile. "You're leaving the children with me and I'm their 'aunt'?"

"The people around here know you as a single woman," Mister Stephen responded. "I figure you can make up some kind of story about a sister who recently passed or something."

Aunt Ellen shrugged and then knelt down.

"Hello, boys. I'm going to be looking after you. Would you like something to eat? I just made a cake."

"Cake?" Bryce questioned in confusion.

"Is that like pancakes?" Neal added with a puzzled frown.

Aunt Ellen shot Mister Stephen a look and then pulled them in. Cake was not like pancakes but tasted really nice and could be eaten with their fingers. It was good because Bryce couldn't use knives, forks and spoons properly to eat yet.

* * *

Ellen started out home-schooling the boys. She didn't think she would be able to drop them into school until they had a good grasp of societal norms as well as an understanding of what life should be like for kids their age.

It was scary how fast they picked up the ability to read and write and do calculations. Ellen only had to say something once and the boys would remember it. She only had to show them something once and they could do it.


	28. SGC2 - Secret Government Clones 2

**SGC2 - Secret Government Clones 2**

* * *

One day, Ellen showed Neal pool down at the nearby pool hall.

They sat down and Neal watched for a few minutes.

"So, the goal is to get the balls into the holes?" he questioned with a curious frown.

Ellen nodded and Neal walked off and asked a few older men to teach him. An hour later, he was playing like he had been all his young life.

"That's a child prodigy you have there," one of the men commented when Ellen was ready to leave.

"Did I pass the test?" Neal asked. "Can we go back to Bryce now?"

Bryce was being looked over by Stephen Bartowksi, who had come to see how the boys were doing. Ellen quickly called him, to check whether it was alright if she brought Neal back early.

* * *

Neal was a troublemaker. That was Ellen's opinion. Stephen thought the twins were close to identical, 'after all, they are clones, Ellen,' but Ellen disagreed with that notion. Even when they first arrived, Neal was the one who tested everything. It often landed him in trouble, like the time he got into Ellen's medicine cupboard, but it made him more sociable than his twin.

Bryce was quiet and polite. He spoke back when spoken to but was rarely caught breaking the rules or trying to get into places he shouldn't have been.

Ellen really shouldn't have been surprised when she discovered that Neal had enrolled both of them at the local school. She had trouble trying to figure out how he had achieved it but she knew it involved turned back clocks, road works and a forged bus pass that she reluctantly let him keep.

Once they were enrolled, Ellen didn't see any reason to keep home-schooling the boys. Obviously, they wanted to move to public schooling.

* * *

Bryce was attracted to Ellen's computer. There wasn't anything special on it. It was just a regular personal computer. It could store information but the only game of interest on it was very basic chess.

So when he was allowed on the computer, Bryce played that. He got good at chess quickly and introduced the game to his brother. Somehow, Bryce learnt about the game 'Zork' and wanted to try that. Ellen did her best to track down a version for him to play for what became the twins' birthday.

Neal got a chess set and a backgammon set, since he seemed to enjoy playing chess but didn't care much for the computer. Ellen thought a new game to entertain him might be a good idea.

* * *

One night, Stephen Bartoswki hammered on the door. It had been a long time since Ellen had heard from Stephen, let alone seen him in person. Still, Neal recognised him instantly and let him in.

"You look like death warmed over," Neal commented.

"I just might be," Stephen said in a hoarse voice. "Let me see your Aunt, 'k, kid?"

"…Sure. She and Bryce are in the kitchen."

They were both surprised to see Stephen Bartoswki stumble in and take a seat.

"What's going on?" Ellen asked. She instantly wondered if it had something to do with the boys, who had been with her for almost eight years and grew into lovely but normal young men. Bryce was getting ready to leave for Stanford and she really hoped whatever this was wouldn't affect that.

"I'm going on the run," Stephen responded.

"Like a criminal?" Neal questioned suspicious. He was aiming to be a cop but Ellen was trying to talk him out of that. Her history with police officers was not the best and she was still hoping to one day look into the corruption which resulted in her being placed in WITSEC.

"The people I work for, I don't think they have... no. They have noble intentions for my invention but there are others who I do not trust," Stephen tried to explain. "So I burned everything and left."

"Everything?" Ellen questioned. That was not good. She knew that meant Stephen would be hunted.

"Everything they had. I wanted to give you a way to contact me before I left." Stephen glanced at the boys, standing on opposite sides of the room. "I have been looking into the person behind the project which created you two." Bryce stiffened and Neal frowned.

The 'project' was just a distant memory to them. One they both had mixed feelings about. One they were trying to move beyond.

One of the reasons Neal wanted to be a police officer was to help end corruption.

"It's going to be difficult to search now," Stephen sighed. He pulled out a couple of CDs. "Perhaps one of you will have better luck than I will."

"No," Neal said firmly and quickly. Bryce gave him a look.

"It'd probably be a good idea. The more we know, the better."

"Knowledge is power, I know," Neal responded. "But I don't like the idea of investigating these people. It's better for people like Orion and his team to do it. They have the government on their side."

"'Had'," Bryce corrected.

"We don't have to decide now," Ellen informed them, the calm voice of reason. She took the CDs from Stephen. "I'll put these away until either of you decide."

"That's a good idea," Neal agreed. Bryce nodded but didn't look completely convinced.

"There is one thing-" Stephen started to say before banging sounded through the apartment.

It was a loud 'thunk' followed moments later by another one.

"That's a battering ram," Ellen identified.

Stephen stood up and pulled his bag over his shoulder.

"We need to leave," he said, "the people pursuing me won't be leaving you all alive."

Neal stepped towards Ellen as Bryce ran for the gun hidden in her room.

"There's another escape out the bathroom," Ellen explained. Bryce caught them in the hallway, holding the gun like it was second nature.

Neal kicked over tables, chairs and pushed over the sofa to create obstacles before entering and barricading the door by shoving toilet paper rolls into the bottom.

"That won't stall them for long," Bryce commented.

* * *

They made their way down the outside of the building. Bryce went first and Neal went last.

"Okay, what now?" Bryce asked when they were all standing on the thin stretch grass between their apartment building and the building next to it. They were in complete darkness, the shadow of the building, hiding them from view.

"Climb the back wall and head to the street," Stephen ordered. "We'll catch a cab to a place where I know I can borrow a few cars."

"As long as we get to the marshals, we should be alright," Ellen said. She gave the twins an encouraging look.

Bryce smiled back while Neal didn't look convinced. He was wondering how many steps ahead their assailant was thinking. He didn't have much beyond a vague feeling so they climbed the wall. Beyond it was a small park area. Just some grass, a seat and a birdbath.

Shouts of 'freeze, Orion!' sounded as lights shone in their faces.

"Sorry," Orion said. Then he said something else, " _aut vincere aut mori; Either overpower or die_."

Neal's heart began thudding quickly. Adrenaline rushed through his system, the world seemed to slow. An instinct to fight kicked in.

"Disarm and knock them unconscious," Stephen ordered. They were off before he started his next order to not kill anyone.

Neal punched, kicked and hit. He grabbed guns from hands and jabbed them into other's guts or chins. Bryce was a whirlwind nearby.

Ellen was yelling in the distance.

Neal only stopped when the last man dropped to the ground. He got him in the gut while Bryce went for the neck.

They turned to Stephen for more instructions, heart racing in their chests.

"Get in a cab," Stephen said, walking forward.

* * *

" _Faber est quisque fortunae suae_."

At the sound of those words, Neal's heart stopped racing. His head seemed to clear of whatever chemical mess had been going on before. It took a few moments before he could piece everything together.

"A trigger phrase?" he snarled at Stephen. Bryce seemed just as horrified as he was, rubbing his hands together as if that would get rid of the blood splattered on them.

"I promise I will never use it again," Stephen said earnestly.

"Yeah, right," Neal said sceptically.

"You sure promised quick," Bryce commented.

"I didn't want to use it in the first place," Stephen responded, "but my only other plan would have probably involved a big explosion."

"That would have been cool," Bryce mused.

"Not cool," Neal said, still mad. "He controlled us!"

"Neal." Ellen's hand was cool and grounding on his shoulder. "I'm angry too. But, let's focus on getting to the marshals."

Right, Ellen had been shouting at Stephen. Neal sat back and tried to calm down.

"I admit my handling of the situation was… not the best but it served a number of purposes. Firstly, I got to see you two in action, which may help when I attempt to find a way around it. Secondly, now you are aware of the trigger phrases and what they do. Thirdly, it also allowed for us to escape without harming anyone."

"As great as that all is, I would rather it never happened again," Bryce muttered. Neal nodded in agreement.

His hands were shaking and he wondered if he was just as pale as his brother was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes: "aut vincere aut mori; Either to conquer or to die." – changed conquer to overpower as a failsafe in the keywords. Both the Latin and the English need to be used in sequence. More about the keywords in the next chapter.


	29. SGC3 - Secret Government Clones 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes: So this ended up longer than I thought and I do believe there'll probably be another chapter. So, I have to ask, is there anything anyone would like to see in the Secret Government Clones series before I end it?
> 
> Please remember that I am only taking ideas for this universe and I'm not taking prompts for other stories. Prompts mean more work for me and I haven't been taking them for a while now.

**SGC3 - Secret Government Clones 3**

* * *

Bryce went to Stanford.

He didn't like how people could control him but didn't think many people would know the keywords anyway. It was hard to become close friends with others, just because he hid so many things.

The day he met Chuck was great. He didn't have to hide how he knew Klingon or his love of Zork.

Neal left for New York.

He felt like a weapon. A tool to be used by those who knew. As Stephen has said, _'there are others who I do not trust'_. For Neal, that became everyone. He knew that the people who had created him and his brother looked and acted just like everyone else. They didn't have keywords which made their true nature appear.

Neal didn't think he could be a police officer. Not when he was the kind of person the police were supposed to catch.

So he ran.

* * *

_"And the minute you stop running, it's not just going to catch up to you, it's going to run you over."_

Neal liked working with Peter. Despite the music box, Adler, the treasure and Keller, the island, Ellen's death and now this strange guy 'Sam'. It was challenging. It was helpful. He was starting to remember the kind of person he wanted to be before Stephen Bartowski had blown into his life and changed everything for the second time.

He was going to find Ellen's evidence box and put away a lot of bad people.

"Neal… there's something you need to know," Peter said on the phone. Neal looked out at 'Sam' who was sitting on June's balcony and reading the paper.

Peter said something unbelievable, something shocking. The blood Neal had managed to soak into a cloth when 'Sam' was attacked should not have revealed this.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Neal questioned.

'Sam'; no, it was _James,_ gave him a confused look.

"Tell you what?"

"That you're my father." Neal paused for a moment, noticing the tell in the way James' eyes twitched. Neal was in trouble. So much trouble. "That shouldn't be possible and yet, that's what the DNA says."

James sighed. He closed the paper. Folded it in half. Placed it on the table.

To Neal, every movement felt like it took ages for James to do. Every movement felt like a hidden threat.

"DNA is just a map of genetics," James explained, threading his hands before him. "It can be manipulated. Just like when you're creating clones."

A shudder ran down Neal's back. He took a step back.

"Get out," he demanded, instincts and thoughts screaming at him to get away. He was in trouble. He was dangerous.

He needed help.

"Why?" James questioned.

Neal shook his head as he almost heard the words before James said them;

" _aut vincere aut mori; Either overpower or die_."

Neal's heart gave a big thud, like a shock, before jumping in his chest. Same as before, Neal's brain started releasing chemicals to create a connection between him and James. He was already in fight or flight but his thoughts _(he didn't want to be a weapon! He didn't want to hurt people!)_ changed to protecting James, fighting for James.

Peter walked through the door. Neal turned and stilled, mind reeling because it was torn between these two people.

"Neal! Take out the agent!" James ordered.

Neal rushed forward, seeing a threat instead of a friend. He was slightly hesitant to hurt this person.

* * *

Peter had known something was up. It was a big revelation and he had told Neal over the phone while James was in his apartment. It didn't bode well, especially when the line went silent but not dead.

Peter could just hear Neal over the line as he rushed towards the carpark.

_"...my father...shouldn't be possible...DNA says."_

That didn't sound good. Peter rushed over to June's, listening to what he could on the other end of the phone. He caught fragments of a Latin phrase and some English following it.

He didn't get it, but didn't sound good. The Latin reminded him of something Neal said during the time they were undercover in the tech company. Their murder suspect had used a Latin phrase as a key to his office.

A certain phrase that seemed to make Neal thoughtful for some reason.

 _"Hey, Peter,"_ he had said as they filed the final reports on that case. Neal had been fidgety and twitchy, like he wanted to run. So Peter knew whatever he said was going to be important. _"That Latin phrase Kent used. Could you keep it in mind? It might help you if I ever act... out of character."_

Neal left quickly after that admission and Peter was left wondering what he meant by 'out of character'. He also wondered how a Latin phrase would help.

* * *

Peter had been surprised when he entered the apartment. Neal and James were standing in the apartment and Neal looked cornered. He was pale and trembling.

James shouted an order and Peter had been shocked when Neal rushed him. His back hit the wall, winding him as he kicked out at Neal's gut. Neal jumped away.

"Neal! What are you doing?" Peter demanded to know.

Neal reached out and grabbed a chair. His mouth opened like he was going to say something but there was no sound.

Peter moved as Neal tossed the chair in his direction. It cluttered and banged as it hit the floor. Peter was busy watching it, giving Neal the chance to pin him to the ground.

"Neal!" he grunted, trying to buck the smaller and younger man off. Neal was strong and heavy though and didn't budge a bit.

Peter's hands flew to his neck as Neal reached out for it.

 _"Faber est quisque fortunae suae!"_ he shouted in a panic. This certainly counted as 'out of character' for Neal.

James started laughing. The noise seemed to confuse Neal as well since he paused.

"It seems the experiment told you more than he should have," James commended them. "But, he probably didn't tell you that you can only use the shut-down phrase, if you used the boot-up phrase."

"What? How can you talk about your son like that?" Peter demanded to know. He knew something slightly beyond his understanding was going on; _'experiment'_?, but he knew James couldn't be allowed to treat Neal like this.

"He's not my son. He's an experiment. He and that 'twin' of his were both created as perfect agents and perfect weapons."

Twin? Peter knew he would have to ask Neal a lot of questions after this.

"Are you sure he's still following your boot-up phrase?" Peter questioned. Neal had paused in trying to kill him for the moment, so Peter was going to take advantage of that.

" _aut vincere aut mori; Either overpower or die_. Kill Peter Burke," James ordered.

" _aut vincere aut mori; Either overpower or die_!" Peter frantically repeated to Neal, hoping that this would work for both their sakes. "Don't listen to James!"

Neal flinched and seemed to freeze again. James growled and pulled out a gun.

"Gun!" Peter shouted. In the blink of an eye, Neal was on his feet and kicking out at James' gun. Peter finally stood up and quickly moved over to James, taking him down with his own power and cuffing James' hands behind his back.

For good measure, he ordered Neal to get him a couple of socks and he tied them around James' mouth, gagging him.

" _Faber est quisque fortunae suae_ ," Peter finally said. Neal dropped to the ground, his legs unable to carry his weight.

They both breathed sighs of relief.

"I'm going to call Diana to take care of James and then you're going to explain what happened here," Peter said. As an afterthought, he placed his jacket over Neal's shoulder. The kid seemed shell-shocked.

* * *

Neal didn't know what to say. Diana arrived and she and Peter marched James down to the car. Peter tried to explain what had happened as best he could, leaving out how Neal attacked him on James' orders.

Neal pulled the warm coat tighter around him and stumbled towards the phone he had hidden inside a copy of _'The Secret Agent'_ by Joseph Conrad. There was only one contact detail inside the phone. An email dropbox which the phone itself could send a message to.

Neal sent a message describing what had happened and then sat back to wait.

* * *

Bryce yawned and climbed out of bed. He was in New Jersey, laying low. He had just completed a mission and General Beckman wanted to be certain that there were no stragglers out to capture and interrogate him.

Bryce dressed in a shirt and pants and opened the door to see Casey still standing across the hall with a gun in his hands.

"Good morning, Larkin."

He blinked and frowned. He would say this was strange behaviour from Casey but, Morgan was sleeping up against the wall.

"Morgan fell asleep on his shift, didn't he?" Bryce deduced.

Casey nodded.

"However. It gave me more time to watch over your sleeping corpse."

"I'm not dead. And I doubt you can describe a corpse as 'sleeping'," Bryce responded blandly.

"You're not a corpse yet. Just give it time, Larkin."

Bryce shook his head and started down the hall. He knew that Casey was probably still mad that he had faked his death on them twice.

What was Bryce supposed to tell them? He survived injures which would have killed a normal person because he wasn't a normal person? He was much more durable and capable of mentally slowing his heartbeat to an almost standstill for a limited amount of time. As long as he wasn't moving around.

It made being transported easier. A creepy and annoying reason but a handy skill.

"Oh, and Larkin? Next time, I'm making sure you're dead by putting a bullet through your brain."

"Uh-huh," Bryce grumbled back. He wasn't here to converse with Casey, who seemed more chatty now that he was hanging around with Chuck and Morgan.

"You okay, Buddy?" Chuck asked when he stumbled into the kitchen.

"Yep. I just don't need the babysitting service," he responded, "no offence." Why the General insisted on hiring Chuck's team to guard him, he'll never know.

Bryce's phone beeped with a message.

"Well, you did sleep most of the day," Chuck pointed out.

"Maybe because I plan to work tonight," Bryce responded. He had a feeling that anyone coming after him would try after hours.

He glanced down at the message. An email.

Some of his worry must have shown on his face because Chuck seemed to pause.

"Bryce?"

Bryce opened the message and quickly scanned it.

"I need to get to New York," he said, rushing out to the rented car.

"Bryce!" Chuck called, rushing after him and calling the rest of the team. "Wait!"

* * *

It was an awkward car ride. Sara ended up driving with Chuck riding shotgun and Bryce squished in the back with Morgan and Casey in the seats to his left.

He explained that he had a sort of 'twin', who was living in New York. That twin had been the one to send the message.

Bryce was worried. If one of the people behind that project found Neal, he didn't know how his brother would take it.

The time Stephen used the key words, Neal had been horrified. He had rejected them and run off. Bryce thought he was scared to be around them. Scared of what he could do. Bryce knew enough to know that his brother completely threw out the idea of ever being a cop.

That was the result when someone they knew and trusted used them. If it had been someone else…

"Can we go any faster?" Bryce asked.

Sara considered his request. She glanced back and then kicked the car up a gear.

"Uh… Honey?" Chuck whimpered from where he was clutching the door. "That's a little fast."

"It's fine, Bartowski," Casey said.

"Yeah, Chuck, live a little," Morgan added, throwing his hands into the air and crying out, "whee!"

"Besides, when we get to New York, we're going to slow to a crawl," Bryce pointed out. "Because of traffic."

This did not calm Chuck down.

* * *

Neal rejected the idea of going to the office to talk. He rejected going to the Burke's. He considered packing his things and ditching June's. After all, how long before someone else found him?

Peter now knew the keywords as well. Neal questioned whether he could really trust the agent.

Mozzie would be able to hide him. They could run around the world again. It had been years since Neal saw the beauty of Paris.

"So, first question, you do remember everything that happened?" Peter said as he slipped into the seat across from him.

Neal glanced at the beer in the agent's hand and didn't comment. It was obvious that Peter was trying to make him feel more comfortable, like the other times Neal shared secrets in this apartment.

Still, Neal nodded a response to Peter's question.

The door opened and Peter breathed a sigh of relief as June walked in with a tray of hot drinks.

"Tea?" she questioned, not really waiting for an answer before she placed the tray on the table and a cup of warm liquid in front of Neal.

Neal gripped it, letting the warmth glow in his hands. The liquid was dark, tea without milk. It smelled like vanilla.

Neal and Peter sat in silence. It seemed that Peter knew not to interrogate him on this.

"I've contacted someone who is on his way. He'll be able to explain some things," Neal said slowly. He didn't know how Bryce did it. It made Neal sick to think about it and his thinking would go in circles. From how they were 'created' to how they were 'raised' the how they could be controlled and back to 'created' until he was dizzy.

Peter perked up as the thudding sound of footsteps started in the distance.

"Bryce! You can't go running around nice old lady's houses!" a voice cried out in an out-of-breath manner.

"Neal!" Bryce cried out, shoving the door open. He didn't pay any attention to Peter, instead running forward and wrapping Neal in a hug. "Are you okay? No one was hurt, right? Did you get any more information on the project?"

Neal knocked the back of Bryce's head for that last question.

"We arrested some guy called James Bennett. Name sound familiar?"

"Ooh," Bryce hummed. "I flagged him as the guy who would know the most. But he was impossible to find."

"I guess he's been living as Samuel Phelps," Neal responded with a shrug. "Explain the people standing in my doorway."

Bryce sighed and turned to find Chuck, Sara and Casey staring at them in shock while Morgan looked excited. He introduced them to Neal and Neal to them, while Neal introduced Peter.

"FBI," Casey sniffed.

"Hey! I'm technically FBI and he saved my life earlier," Neal countered.

"'Technically FBI'?" Bryce questioned.

"He's a consultant," Peter said.

"Consultant?" Sara questioned.

"On a work release program," Peter added with a nod.

"'Work release'?" Bryce questioned, baffled.

"Comes with a free anklet and 2-mile radius," Neal added in a joking manner as he pointed at his ankle.

"That's... a..." Bryce stuttered.

"Wow. What'd you do?" Morgan questioned in an interested and impressed tone.

" _Allegedly_ ," Neal said, "I may have forged some bonds."

"You were convinced of bond forgery, Neal."

"Thanks for the reminder, Peter. And I'm also allegedly a gentleman thief-"

"He's a con artist and forger," Peter interrupted with a correction again.

"And working for the FBI was better than prison?" Bryce questioned. He didn't mean it but, he sounded like he was insulting the FBI rather than questioning his brother's sanity in taking a dangerous deal. Working for the government was not a walk in the park.

"Thanks Bryce, your support means the world to me."

"So, you're twins," Peter questioned, recalling the introductions from earlier. Neal and Bryce nodded. "Then, why didn't Bryce come to Ellen's funeral?"

"What?" Bryce froze, looking like someone had slapped him. "Ellen's dead?"

Neal looked like a deer in the headlights as he realised he hadn't contacted Bryce about that.

"Yeah. Remember how I mentioned James? We sort of saw him at the funeral."

"Ellen died... and you didn't tell me?" Bryce questioned Neal.

"You died and came back and didn't tell me," Neal countered in frustration. "I didn't get to go to your funeral and learnt about your 'death' in the paper."

"We both know that we can die at any time," Bryce responded. "After all, the process which created us was experimental. If anything goes wrong at any time, we could melt."

"Melt?" Neal questioned in unison with everyone else in the room.

"Yeah," Bryce responded as if it was a natural thing. "I checked out some of the records for experiments before us. Most failed by melting into gooey messes."

"I don't think I want to hear this," Neal muttered, tugging at Peter's jacket and trying to make it sit right over his shoulders.

"Focus! Ellen died and no one told me. She was human, Neal! She had a long life ahead of her."

"Hold up," Casey growled, his voice cutting through tension like a bullet. "Explain the experiment thing."

So Bryce and Neal told the story of twin clones raised in a secret government lab.

"Whoa," Morgan said when they were done. He spoke to Peter, "this is so far above your pay-check."

"Neal's my pay-check," Peter responded certainly. "This concerns him, so it concerns me. And possibly my wife. Is there any danger in telling my wife?"

"Probably not," Bryce responded with a shrug after a glance at Neal. "As long as she doesn't go shouting it from the rooftops."


End file.
